Young Maiden's Chronicles 2: Seasonal Fantasy
by Private Winters
Summary: Hakurei Reimu, having just become a full-fledged shrine maiden, is in the midst of learning about her new duty when she stumbles upon something that granted her full access to the true powers of the Hakurei clan. Little did she know that with great power comes great responsibility... A fan remake covering from EoSD to PoFV.
1. The New Shrine Maiden

_Life..._

_The element of nature..._

_It exists in many different forms..._

_It exists in many different environments..._

_There is not a place where life doesn't flourish..._

_There is not a life that thrives independently..._

_Yet for one life to thrive..._

_...Another has to cease..._

_This is the spiral of life..._

_...A spiral none can escape..._

_This is the story of an individual..._

_Who will become the caretaker of life..._

_...In a land with an imperfect spiral..._

_A land called Gensokyo..._

_This is her story..._

_A young maiden's chronicles..._

...

**Hakurei Shrine**

It was a peaceful time...

Everyone in the human villages went about with their lives. The adults ran their shops while the children played around in the streets.

But for some people, they have some other matters to attend to, as they left the confines of the villages to head to the shrine on top of the small hill to the east.

That shrine is the Hakurei Shrine.

The news have spread that the current shrine maiden trainee has finished her training, and will be becoming a full-fledged shrine maiden. It has been many years since her predecessor passed on, and people are glad that they are about to have a new guardian to protect them from the various Youkai that plagued everything outside of the villages' confines, and some have taken to come to the Shrine to see the new shrine maiden's initiation ceremony in person.

While the Hakurei Shrine occupied a large piece of land (enough for a manor to be placed on top of it), the main shrine building is barely larger than an average house, and right behind it is a storage shed that's only slightly bigger. The Shrine has seen better days, and some hoped that the new shrine maiden can bring it to revitalization.

That being said, though, the visitors were few in numbers, including villagers, village peacekeepers, and officers of the Gensokyo Police Force.

There are also the shrine maidens from the lesser known shrines of Gensokyo, who came to get a first glimpse of the latest successor of the land's most important shrine.

The crowd's murmuring decreased as the would-be shrine maiden of the Hakurei Shrine emerged from the shrine's main building.

"So this is the next Hakurei shrine maiden..."

"Is she competent, though?"

"She is just a child..."

"The youngest Hakurei shrine maiden ever..."

The crowd's murmur continued to lower in volume until they became silent as the new shrine maiden stopped at the center of the altar.

Then with no further adieu, the initiation ceremony began with the new shrine maiden performing the _kagura_ dance, just the way she had practiced and rehearsed in the last month.

If it were any other Shinto shrines, the initiation ceremony would not be this extravagant. But this has been the tradition of the Hakurei Shrine and the clan it is named after since before Gensokyo sealed itself off from the outside world.

The crowd and the lesser shrine maidens watched with awe how elegant the new Hakurei shrine maiden performed the _kagura_ dance. The ritual went on without a hitch, and is about to reach the final stages...

...And then the mystical mood gets ruined by the sound of someone making a loud entrance.

"HELLO DADDY! HELLO MOM! I'M YOUR CH-CH-CH-CH-CH-CHERRY BOMB!"

Eyebrows raised and eyes wide open in confusion, everyone turned toward the _torii_ arch where the loud singing came from.

Ascending the steps is a western blonde girl wearing a black pointy hat with an equally black leather coat over a black blouse and pants. Strapped to the side of her waist is a rectangular mechanical device in which the loud song she is singing along with is coming from.

"Isn't that... Mr. Kirisame's daughter?"

"Marisa, isn't it?"

"What is she doing?"

"Is that even appropriate?"

**Stardust Witch**

**Marisa G. Kirisame**

"HELLO WORLD, I'M YOUR WILD GIRL! I'M YOUR CH-CH-CH-CH-CH-CHERRY BOMB!"

The girl, Marisa, continued to loudly sing along with her song-playing device for several more seconds, with everyone in the shrine grounds watching in utter confusion.

Then the song suddenly went out, and Marisa's singing came to a halt with it.

"The heck?" Marisa, speaking in a foreign language, wondered what just happened, as she grabbed the song-playing device and raised it up to her face for a close inspection. "Why'd it..."

"Miss Marisa, please don't ruin Miss Reimu's big day..." A shorter witch, this one with brown hair and looking like a Yamato, came into view, holding in her right hand a glowing magic wand. She is followed by four others.

Marisa frowned upon hearing that. "Oh, you Little Witches..."

Ignoring Marisa (for now), the Little Witches walked past her to stand before the crowd, then bowed as they apologized to everyone on Marisa's behalf.

At that moment, the newly inducted shrine maiden walked down the altar, past the crowd and Little Witches, and stopped before Marisa.

The blonde witch raised a hand to greet the shrine maiden. "Hi, Reimu. How ya doin'?"

**Young Maiden of Paradise**

**Hakurei Reimu**

The shrine maiden, Reimu, answered with a hard tap to the witch's head.

"あなたのマナーはどこですか?" Reimu then berated Marisa in the Yamato language.

"What are you saying?" Marisa, pressing a hand on where Reimu had tapped her, said. "Gimme a moment, please." She then summoned a star-tipped magic wand into existence in her right hand, and started waving it gently.

"あなたはまだその奇妙な外国語を話していますか?" Reimu said again.

"Well, I ain't got a clue on what'cha sayin'..." Marisa answered as she continued waving her wand.

"私はあなたが言っている1つの単語を理解していない..." Reimu lamented as she face-palmed.

Marisa tapped her wand a bit against her left hand, as though to fix a problem it is experiencing. "Yannow, Reimu, ya kinda looked fat in this getup of-" She chipped while at it.

The witch suddenly found herself being grabbed by the collar of her blouse by Reimu.

"What's wrong, Rei-" Marisa tried to ask, but is interrupted when the shrine maiden started to shake her furiously.

"FAT?! FAT?! DID YOU JUST CALLED ME FAT?!" Reimu, now speaking Marisa's language, yelled furiously at the top of her voice as she continued shaking the witch.

"SorryIdidn'tmeantosaythatsorrysorrysorrysorrysorry!" Marisa tried to apologize to Reimu, but the shrine maiden continued to shake her with utmost anger.

Meanwhile, the crowd whom have been ignored so far continued to stare dumbfounded at the event unfolding before their eyes.

...

Much later in the day, the initiation ceremony has completely wrapped up, and the crowd departed from the Hakurei Shrine to get back to their daily lives (or work) in the villages.

Marisa, a bit dizzy from Reimu's furious shaking of her, sat on the veranda while leaning against one of the support pillars. The black-furred cat that came with her put a paw to its face, as though mimicking the human act of face-palming.

"Ya don't need to react so comically, Reimu..." The witch told the shrine maiden.

"Don't you dare call me fat again, Marisa..." Reimu responded with a threatening tone while she swept the shrine grounds. "Or I will tell your mother about how you rudely crashed the ceremony."

"Alright, alright, I geddit. Geez, what's your problem with The Runaways?" Marisa said. She then looked around the shrine, as if looking for something, or someone. "Say, where'd Green Hair gone to?"

As if on cue, the "Green Hair" in question appeared from inside the main building, carrying a few cups of tea and a small bowl of rice biscuits with her.

_"I was not expecting you, Miss Kirisame..."_ Ruukoto greeted. _"Should I prepare a cup of tea for you as well?"_

Marisa raised a hand to decline. "Nah, I'm good." She said. The witch then noticed that there are five teacups on the tray Ruukoto is carrying. "But ain't that a bit too much for just Reimu?"

"The tea and snacks are not for me alone, Marisa..." Reimu clarified. "They're for _them_." She added as she gestured to the side of the veranda opposite from Marisa.

Sitting at the opposite side of the shrine is a small group of shrine maidens, whom are chatting among each other. Of course, the current subject of their chat is Marisa herself.

"You girls see how Mr. Kirisame's daughter almost ruined Miss Hakurei's performance with her loud entry?" Asked the purple-haired shrine maiden wearing a red flat cap with three stars on it.

"She's actually friends with Miss Hakurei! What kind of friend do that?!" Said a blonde shrine maiden wearing a red ribbon on her head.

"I wonder if she picked up her delinquent attitude from her mother, who I heard is a westerner?" Wondered a long, dark-haired shrine maiden with a white ribbon at the back of her head.

"I'm also a westerner of Yamato descent, and even I don't get her _bloody_ attitude..." Commented a shrine maiden wearing a bandanna over her blonde hair, who spoke with a western accent not unlike a certain little puppeteer from Makai.

Marisa, who heard the four lesser shrine maidens' chat loud and clear, can't help but scoff at being their subject. "Well, they kinda remind me of Ako and the others..."

"They're _shrine maidens_ of their own families' shrines, so please don't compare them with those good-for-nothing witch friends of yours." Reimu rebuked just as she finished sweeping the leaves into a neat pile. "Now, Marisa, you stay here while I go clean up the storage shed..."

With that, the shrine maiden set her broom aside, and went to the storage shed behind the main building.

"Heh. One year later, and she's still pissed 'bout losing her purple hair..." Marisa, now sitting by herself, mused, as she watched Ruukoto putting the teacups and bowl of rice biscuit by the lesser shrine maidens' side. "They kinda remind me of Ako and her gang..."

The witch then noticed the lesser shrine maidens all turning their attention toward her.

"What? Why are ya girls lookin' at me like that?" Marisa asked. "Ya wanna listen to some of my favorite songs? I've got Nine Inch Nails' full collection in here." She added as she raised her song-playing device into view. "No? How 'bout AC/DC? Or how 'bout-"

Marisa's cat put its paws to its face again.

...

Reimu paused as she looked over the exterior of the storage shed. The shed looked like it has not been used by anyone in decades, as the door and the heavy-duty padlock (that is hanging loose) on it are both covered in mosses.

"How long has it been since this shed was last used?" Reimu wondered out loud.

"Very long, I'm sure..." Replied an old, masculine voice.

Reimu looked to her right and saw nobody...until she looked down and saw Genji there.

**Divine Aide of the Hakurei Clan**

**Genji**

"Gramps, you...haven't been inside the shed yourself, have you?" Reimu asked the divine turtle.

"Can't say I have..." Genji replied. "At least not during your mother's tenure as the Hakurei shrine maiden..."

Reimu approached the door of the storage shed, and started trying to figure out how to unlock it. "Are there anything interesting inside that you would like to share?" She took the time to ask a trivial question.

"There are trophies from some of the largest Incidents ever to be solved by the previous shrine maidens..." Genji answered. "Those, and an amulet whose sole purpose is to produce any kind of fragrance..."

Reimu almost collapsed upon hearing the last one. "Fr-fr-fragrance...?!" She uttered in disbelief. "Why does the Hakurei Clan have an amulet with such a mundane purpose?!"

"I...don't quite understand what Ayano was thinking at that time either..." Genji explained, unused to being so awkward. "She was...the quirkiest Hakurei Shrine Maiden I've ever served..."

"I hope she isn't as quirky as Marisa..." Reimu remarked just as she got the door open... by accidentally tearing it down altogether (the hinges have deteriorated after so many decades).

The shrine maiden stared awkwardly at her handiwork before dropping the detached door on the ground.

"Remind me to fix that, gramps..." Reimu said before she strutted into the now-open storage shed, with Genji following right behind.

The inside of the shed is in no better condition than the outside. Thick layers of dust covered most of the things, and the ones that don't have dust on them have what looked like water marks on them, indicative of water dripping down from the leaky roof. At least the contents are all neatly arranged by the last person to have stepped inside the shed.

Reimu coughed a bit from the dust and decades-old stagnant air. She then summoned the Ying-Yang Orb to use it as a light source, illuminating the inside of the storage shed.

Genji was right about the trophies, all of which are stored in glass cases. Though some of the trophies have their glass cases worn out by the lack of maintaining. There are also small wooden chests under the stands in which the trophies are placed on. Reimu opened one of those chest out of curiosity, finding a scroll that described the Incident in which it came from. As the scroll has partially crumbled due to age, Reimu carefully put it back in the chest and closed it. She assumed that the other chests also contained scrolls that described whichever Incidents their accompanying trophies came from, but decided not to disturb them for the sake of preserving history.

There is also a trophy stand that didn't look like it ever had a trophy on it. Genji claimed that all Hakurei Shrine Maidens have at least one extra trophy case prepared just in case.

As Reimu slowly explored the storage shed, she soon came across an ornately decorated wooden chest, which seemed odd as it looked like it hasn't been there for very long, as indicated by the lack of dust or water marks.

"Hm...that is strange..." Genji pointed out. "It appears to be radiating some kind of magic energy..."

Curious about the ornate chest, Reimu approached it, with her gohei ready just in case. She poked the ornate chest with her gohei, and got no response of any kind.

The shrine maiden's curiosity peaked as she went and opened the ornate chest, in spite of Genji warning her to be careful...

* * *

And here you have, my dear readers! The long awaited sequel to _Young Maiden's Chronicles: Spirit Dream_.

I present to you: _Young Maiden's Chronicles 2: Seasonal Fantasy_. This story will be covering the Windows Era 1 games, that are: _Embodiment of Scarlet Devil_, _Perfect Cherry Blossom_, _Immaterial and Missing Power_, _Imperishable Nights_, and _Phantasmagoria of Flower View_.

Unlike what ZUN pulled off, though, the PC-98 characters still have roles here. Not as major as they had in _Spirit Dream_, but still better than pretending they never existed.

Marisa singing The Runaways' _Cherry Bomb_, as well as referencing Nine Inch Nails and AC/DC in name? How does Marisa know about them, you ask? Well, they'll all be explained in _Young Maiden's Chronicles: Exotic Inventory_, which will be released within the next day or two.

Also, those four lesser shrine maidens - or Shrine Maiden Mob as I prefer to call them by - are inspired by the nameless shrine maidens drawn randomly by ZUN (except one who's very much the girl from the CD label of _Dolls in Pseudo Paradise_). You can find illustrations of them under "Miscellaneous arts by ZUN" in the _Touhou_ Wiki.

"And that, as they say, is that..."

The song _Cherry Bomb_ and its lyrics are the property of The Runaways. Part of the song is used in this story with no profitable intents whatsoever.

_Afterword ends here._


	2. Magical Maiden Hakurei Reimu

**Hakurei Shrine**

Much speculation filled Reimu's thoughts on what the ornate chest might contain as she peeled off the paper charms that covered the lid (these charms are just imitations with no powers, magical or divine). Then she undid the fasteners that kept the lid secure to the chest.

Genji held his breath (not that he needed any as a divine spirit), as he watched the shrine maiden remove the lid of the ornate chest...

...Revealing what appeared to be a paper umbrella in it.

"Huh?" Reimu cocked her eyebrows as she grabbed the paper umbrella with both hands and lifted it out of the chest. "This is it?" She eyed the paper umbrella with disbelief. "I thought such an ornate chest would've store something that at least looked fancy..."

"I would say that I am just as confused as you are..." Genji said.

The two glanced at each other, then turned their attention back on the paper umbrella.

"Just... who left this here...?"

...

Meanwhile at the main building, Marisa is doing her best to impress the lesser shrine maidens...

"-so I based this costume of mine off of a dude from a story told by my mom. With some modifications, of course. This dude's name is Star Lord. Or rather, that's his self-given nickname. His real name is Peter Quill, and he's the leader of this awesome team of ass-kicking heroes called the Guardians of the Galaxy-"

Marisa soon noticed that her speech had gone over the lesser shrine maidens' collective heads, as all four of them looked at her with utter confusion.

"You're not gettin' any of this, ain't cha?" The half-western witch asked.

All four lesser shrine maidens shook their heads. So did Marisa's cat. Ruukoto, on the other hand, simply declined to comment - either verbally or physically - as she collected the now empty teacups and took them back to the kitchen.

"Of course we don't." Said the dark-haired shrine maiden.

"Figures..." Marisa said as she scratched her chin. "As I was saying..." She then continued with her impression. "This awesome team, as their name implies, protects the galaxy from all sorts of bad guys from a damn crazy warlord to a freakin' planet. Of course, they didn't start out as heroes. For starters, Peter was a self-centered pirate-"

"What is that?" Interrupted the blonde shrine maiden with the red ribbon, as she pointed at the sky.

Everyone looked up to see a beam of jade-colored light shooting down from the sky.

"A light?" Marisa wondered. "And it looked like it's hitting the...storage shed?"

...

Back at the storage shed, Reimu had decided to put the paper umbrella back into the ornate chest, and decided to leave it behind. She then decided she should clean up the shed, starting with removing all the unneeded items from it.

Of course, with the ornate chest being the only thing that appear to be unneeded, it is the only thing that Reimu has taken out of the shed.

The ornate chest is actually heavier than it looked. The shrine maiden massaged her shoulders after moving the chest out of the shed and putting it down in front of the entrance.

"I still don't get this thing..." Reimu said as she turned her attention back on the paper umbrella. "Why would any one of the previous Hakurei shrine maidens keep something so... ordinary? It's even in very good shape, as though it was supposed to be a treasured possession..."

"The answers continue to elude my thousand years old knowledge..." Genji said as he scratched his forehead.

"You don't know either, gramps?" Reimu expressed. She sighed, as she took the paper umbrella out of the chest and held it in her hands again. "It would've been something unique if not even you knows about it. And yet it looked just like any umbrella you could buy cheaply in the village of Touhou-Ri. Or Hoppou-Ri, ev-"

The shrine maiden paused when she looked up in the sky and noticed a jade-colored glow in the clear blue sky.

"Genji, are you-"

"I see it too, Reimu. It feels like... divine magic?"

All of a sudden, the glow in the sky morphed into a beam, which shone itself on Reimu. Or rather, the paper umbrella in her grasp.

The jade-colored beam only shone on the paper umbrella for a few seconds before it faded away as quickly as it came.

"What is going on?" Reimu wondered as she turned her attention on the paper umbrella.

Before the shrine maiden can get an answer, the paper umbrella suddenly reacted, glowing intensely as it released a huge amount of white magic energy.

"Wh-what is this?!"

"It appears to have absorbed the divine magic of the light!"

At the same time, the four lesser shrine maidens and Marisa (with her cat resting on her shoulder) rushed to the storage shed to see what is going on. They too are surprised by it.

"Hey, Reimu! The heck's goin' on?!" Marisa exclaimed, raising her right hand to shield her eyes from the intensifying glow.

Reimu isn't able to answer as the glow is reaching peak intensity.

Soon after that, changes began to occur on Reimu...

The shrine maiden's crisp white haori jacket morphed into a bright red top with a frilly rectangular white collar decorated with a yellow ascot. Her sleeves widened as ribbons appeared around their ends. Her slightly dark red ankle-length hakama skirt morphed into a bright red frilly skirt which went only halfway past her thighs, as white leggings with similar designs as the sleeves materializing to cover what of her legs that the skirt did not. Her geta shoes then morphed into a pair of knee boots. Only her hair tubes and ribbon remain unchanged.

Once Reimu's outfit has been magically changed, the paper umbrella wrapped itself in the same white magic aura as the glow become to intense that everyone had to look away or cover their eyes.

When the bright light receded seconds later, everyone in the immediate area finds that Reimu is no longer holding the paper umbrella. It appears to have transformed into a gohei that is longer than Reimu is tall, with a _haraegushi_ that is just as long attached to it.

Of course, everyone's immediate attention are not on the long gohei that had replaced the paper umbrella. Rather, the center of the attention is Reimu herself.

"What just happened...?" Reimu wondered out loud as she stood where she is, dumbfounded. She quickly noticed that everyone are staring at her. "Why are you all looking at me like that?"

The lesser shrine maidens made no response.

"Uh, how should I put this...? Your... outfit?" Marisa stuttered trying to come up with an answer.

Confused by the half-western witch's statement, Reimu inspected the frilly, flashy outfit that had magically replaced her normal shrine maiden robes...

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"WHAT THE MAKAI?!"

...

**Misty Lake**

In the center of the Misty Lake, there is a small island.

The small island is seldom visited, even by fairies, due to being enveloped deep inside the lake's namesake mist. All anyone knows about the small island is that nothing lives on it except for a few weeds.

However, that is about to change...

The thick mist and ambient silence that have enveloped the island since its very beginning are disturbed when a tiny ball of magic energy suddenly appeared not too far above it.

The tiny ball of magic energy soon began its slow descend toward the island. In the process of doing so, it spawned a small, mild vortex around itself, only made visible by the lake's mist being caught in it.

As the ball neared the ground, the vortex surrounding it began to shrink in size. The weeds flapped in sync with the billowing of the mild vortex.

Soon, the ball of magic energy touched down. The vortex dissipated altogether at the same time.

All of a sudden, the tiny ball expanded into a massive size instantly, covering almost all of the island.

The magic ball remained in place for several minutes before dissipating, revealing in its place a massive manor of western architecture made of marble with different shades of red all over, topped by a clock tower with a golden clock face and diabolic-looking spears as clock hands.

Standing on the balcony of the manor are three people, all inside a translucent red hemisphere which is surrounded by five differently colored crystals that are hovering off the balcony.

"And now, it is time for the inhabitants of this land to kneel before their soon-to-be ruler..." Declared the one clad in red and with bat-like wings.

**Lost Daughter of Vlad Tepes**

**Remilia Scarlet**

"That is I, Remilia Scarlet, the Lost Daughter of Vlad Tepes!" The red-clad lady finished her declaration before raising a fist into the air. "And there is nothing that can stop me!"

If the red-clad lady, Remilia, is expecting something dramatic to happen, she doesn't seem to be getting it, either from the environment or her audience of only two people. The next few seconds was silent enough that the three people could hear each other's soft breaths.

"That is the 666th time you've made the same declaration in your lifetime, Remi..." One of the audience of two - a pink-clad lady with purple hair and is reading a book - deadpanned to Remilia.

Hearing that, Remilia lowered her hands before going through a slight charisma break. "Nnnnggghhh... Why do you always have to ruin the dramatic moment, Pache?! Ju-just do as we've planned!"

...

**Hakurei Shrine**

After the strange event that had occurred, everyone gathered at the front of the shrine to discuss about it.

Or so they initially planned to...

Reimu, not liking her currently bright red and frilly outfit, did everything she could to try to undo the transformation. From tapping both ends of the extra long gohei on the ground, to holding it over her head as though pleading to the heavens, to even making ridiculous poses and shouting ridiculous phrases (all of which are suggested by Marisa, much to Reimu's chagrin)...

None of it worked. Reimu's bright red, frilly outfit did not revert back to her normal shrine maiden robes.

Genji is practically overworking his brain trying to figure it out.

The shrine maiden sighed. "Just... what is with this flashy, _ridiculous_ outfit...?" She complained as she tugged at the yellow ascot tied to the rectangular collar of her top. "This looked like something only a...only a _fairy tale heroine_ would wear!" She then turned her attention on the sleeves. "And _these_ looked like they could be detached!"

Marisa sounded like she is snickering at Reimu's overreaction. "I dunno. I've heard of plenty of guys and girls who wore more ridiculous outfits as superheroes. Then again, none of 'em are real, so..."

The lesser shrine maidens couldn't help but giggle at Marisa's statement.

Reimu then approached Marisa. "So what?! I am the shrine maiden of the Hakurei Shrine! And this!" She emphasized by tugging at her skirt. "This is so short! And then there's these stockings... Why do I have to bare my thighs?! I look so indecent in this!" She ended her ramblings by bringing her foot down.

The shrine maiden stomped the ground hard enough that a small foot-sized crater was formed right there.

Everyone went silent as they slowly turned toward the crater that was formed unexpectedly.

"Uh... Have you ever stepped hard enough to do that before?" Marisa raised a question, unsure of what to make of it.

Reimu nervously shook her head. "No. I'm just as surprised as you are..."

It is at that moment that Ruukoto emerged from the kitchen, carrying freshly refilled cups of tea on a tray.

_"There appears to be a localized mild tremor right outside the main building, and it appears to have lasted only a split second..."_ Said the green-haired maid as she placed the tray of teacups down on the veranda. _"Might I inquire exactly what had just happened?"_

Everyone remained silent for the next few seconds, due to being unsure of what to say.

"It's a long story..." Reimu answered, before quickly grabbing a cup of tea and gulping down its contents.

The shrine maiden didn't even finish the cup of tea before the teacup inexplicably imploded in her hand.

Reimu's eyes widened to the size of dinner plates at the thought of having just crushed a ceramic teacup with just one hand. A _bare_ hand at that.

Marisa's cat meowed in a way that sounded like it is saying "What the heck?"

"Did I just..." Reimu, retracting her hand while thinking about her unexpected handiwork, uttered in bewilderment.

Marisa interrupted Reimu by grabbing her hand. "Well, look at this. Clearly your...uh... transformation gave ya more than this admittedly silly-lookin' outfit..." The witch then reached for the extra long gohei, only to immediately retract her hand the moment she touched it. "...And this magic staff/pole thing that just freakin' zapped me..." She added while massaging her zapped hand. "What I'm gonna say is that-"

_"'With great power comes great responsibility'?" _Ruukoto interrupted.

Marisa snapped her fingers. "Yeah! That's what I was gonna say! A dude called Peter Parker was told that in regards to his superpowers! But the point is that ya need to be responsible with your newfound powers, especially one ya barely understand!"

Reimu, not getting Marisa's reference _and_ point, raised her eyebrows with all the confusion she has gotten in the past hour.

_This is going to be a very strange day for me..._ Reimu thought.

...

**Touhou-ri Village**

Having been confused enough by the unwanted transformation, Reimu decided to cool off by flying off to Touhou-ri - the closest village to the Hakurei Shrine (the lesser shrine maidens went back to their respective shrines after that). She had expected that her bright, frilly outfit (and the umbrella-turned-gohei that caused it to begin with) would be very eye-catching to the villagers and cause debates about it. But the shrine maiden is not in the mood to pay attention to them. She came here specifically to take her mind off of the matter.

Unfortunately for Reimu, Marisa decided to follow her to Touhou-ri, and the witch just _won't_ shut up about her "great responsibility" speech and the stories she kept citing as her reference points. Even Marisa's cat, tucked under her hat, is finding it annoying as it pressed its paws over its ears in an attempt to block out the speech.

"-While the phrase 'with great power comes great responsibility' is specifically tied to Peter Parker, it actually applies to the heroes of the Marvel stories that my mom told me about. Like for example: Tony Stark with his fancy suit of armor, Steve Rogers with his super soldier powers, Stephen Strange with his wizard powers, et cetera. Okay, I know it doesn't really apply to Peter Quill, since he and his Guardians buddies are all a bunch of a-holes, whom got little respect even after kicking the ass of this egomaniac called Ronan, and this _even bigger_ egomaniac who literally calls himself Ego-"

It doesn't look like the witch is going to stop anytime soon...

"Marisa, would you kindly..." Reimu tried to grab the witch's attention.

But Marisa didn't notice, as she went on with her speech. "Of course, all this 'with great power comes great responsibility' thing apply to just about any heroes, not just the Marvel ones, and they don't have to have superpowers either. There's this guy called Ethan Hunt-"

"Marisa... Shut. Up!" Reimu's finally had enough, as she interrupted Marisa by shoving her...

Hard enough to send the witch crashing into a ramen stand. Marisa's cat meowed in surprise as it crashed into the stand together with its master.

Good thing for Marisa that the stand is still being set up at the time, so there are no boiling hot soup spilled on her (or anywhere else). But the stand's owner is definitely angry about having her stand trashed.

Reimu clearly didn't expect the result, as she approached the stand's owner and apologized. Then she turned toward Marisa. "Are you alright?"

Marisa groaned as she got up from the wrecked remains of the ramen stand. "Geez, ya sure got one heck of a shove there, Rei..." She snarked. "Ya coulda just told me to shut up..."

"I'm so sorry..." Reimu apologized as she helped Marisa get up. "It's just that-"

"Looks like the two of you have some kind of problem there~" Chipped a familiar voice from behind Reimu.

The shrine maiden turned around, and found herself facing a pair of formerly maniacal red eyes.

**Not-So-Maniacal Law Enforcing Princess**

**Sonozika Kotohime**

"Oh, it's you..." Reimu dully greeted Kotohime who at the moment is in uniform.

Marisa, on the other hand, waved her hand at Kotohime while treating her like an old friend (despite being not). "Hey there, Constable! Ya lookin' for something to do?"

Kotohime _scoffed_ in response, much to the surprise of both Reimu and Marisa. "Actually, I'm the Chief of the Gensokyo Police Force now~"

"Wow, congratulations!" Marisa said as she extended her right hand toward Kotohime for a handshake.

The not-so-maniacal princess refused the handshake. Not surprising, given her history with Marisa last year. "It was nothing, thief..." Kotohime said, suddenly dropping her usual air-headed demeanor, much to Reimu and Marisa's surprise (again). "My niece, that is, the previous chief of the GPF, insulted a western woman on the sole basis that she is not Yamato..." She seemingly groaned at the thought, as she did an aside glance. "The village elders deemed her to be presenting a bad image of the GPF, so they unanimously voted to kick her out..."

"Ouch." Marisa winced at the thought. "Talk 'bout responsibility..."

"Speaking of responsibility, Miss Kirisame~" Kotohime pointed out, her usual cheery demeanor returned. "I want to talk to you about those little witches who follow you all the time..."

"Ya mean Ako and her gang?" Marisa interrupted. "Yeah, I know about that stunt they pulled a while back. But no worries, Miss Mima has already punished 'em."

"That, and your association with the evil spirit, Mima..." Kotohime added as she pulled out a pair of handcuffs. "As well as your numerous charges of burglary and-"

Marisa's cat suddenly leaped out from under her witch hat, and pounced on Kotohime, causing her to fall on her back. The cat, standing over the not-so-maniacal princess's face, assumed an intimidating stance as it hissed at her.

"Cut it out, Shade. Ya don't have to be so rough." Marisa told her cat as she picked it up.

The cat meowed in response.

"Whaddya mean, 'she's becoming a threat'? She's just doin' her job as police chief!" Marisa answered back, somehow understanding what her cat was saying.

Reimu blinked in confusion as to how Marisa is able to perceive her cat's meows as a language.

Kotohime wiped the dirt and paw prints off her face, then she stood up and dusted her police uniform clean. "Wow, that's a cute little fellow! Just like Ellen's Socrates~" She, forgetting what she was saying prior to being pounced on, chirped as she playfully extended a hand to tease the cat, who hissed and tried to claw at her.

"Her name's Shade." Marisa introduced her cat to Kotohime. "She just showed up at my house one day, and I figured that a witch ain't complete without a cat, so I kept her."

"Why 'Shade'?" Reimu raised a point. "That sounds very sinister to me..."

"I was gonna call her Salem, but that name was already taken. Hence Shade." The witch explained as she tucked her cat under her hat. "Actually, I had plenty of other names in mind. It's just that-"

The sudden cry of a villager brought the conversation to a halt., and grabbed the attention of everyone.

It quickly became apparent why the cry happened: a thick aura of red suddenly appeared out of nowhere and quickly enveloped the whole sky, bathing all of Gensokyo in a shade of scarlet.

"What is happening?!"

"Is this the work of a Youkai?!"

"Are we going to die?!"

The villagers talked about the event worriedly. The sound of children crying can also be heard, as parents hurriedly escorted their children indoors.

Marisa, however, isn't worried one bit. In fact, she seem excited as she summoned her magic wand into her hand. "Well, whoever's doin' this, they're sure gonna get some ass-whoppin'!" She then turned toward Reimu. "Just like Makai, eh?"

"This has little in common with Makai..." Reimu said, momentarily forgetting about her bright, frilly outfit as she stood up front with a serious expression. "But it is an Incident that needs to be solved, and you need the Hakurei shrine maiden to do it."

Marisa then gleefully patted Reimu on the back. "Now that's what I'm talkin' 'bout! Maybe we could be like the A-Team...no wait, those guys are all Mundane humans. Maybe the Avengers? But we've got just the two of us right now... How about Charlie's Angels...?"

Reimu groaned at Marisa's references, as she face-palmed on the spot. "Just... please, shut up, _Genevieve_..."

Marisa stopped with her references upon hearing that. "Hey!" She called out to the shrine maiden, feeling offended by being called her middle name.

* * *

And so begins the _Embodiment of Scarlet Devil_ Arc...

If Reimu's transformation reminds you of a magical girl transformation sequence, that is because it _is _my intention (this chapter's name should've tipped you off already). I'm making this version of Reimu basically a shrine maiden-themed magical girl, complete with superpowers such as super strength and sixth sense. And yes, she can transform back at any time, she just haven't figured it out yet. To quote a _G-Mod_ newbie: "How do I shot web".

And here's Marisa making a boatload of pop culture references, including but not limited to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. "How does she know about all these pop cultures?" you might ask. The answer is simple: she got them from Claire Rainymist, aka her mom (introduced in _Exotic Inventory_). It's like I'm implying that Marisa's mom might not be a Gensokyian of American descent, but actually _be_ from the United States. And since this story is supposed to be set in the 2110s, it means that Marisa (and her mom) are making references to pop culture from as far back as the _1990s_, with her name-dropping _Charlie's Angels_...

Next up: Reimu comes up with the Spell Card Rules to help her win fights and solve Incidents, but finds out that it doesn't make things any easier...

"And that, as they say, is that..."

_Afterword ends here._


	3. First Sortie

**Hakurei Shrine**

In order to prepare for her first ever Incident as a full-fledged shrine maiden, Reimu returned to the Hakurei Shrine (alone, as Marisa took a detour) to pick up everything she will be needing.

First, she grabbed several stacks of Ofuda, as they turned out to be the most useful tools in her arsenal in the Mystic Square Incident from last year (she made sure to pack more than she did last year just in case she gets afflicted with another curse). Then she picked up her usual gohei, as she is _not_ going to use the extra-long one that put her in this frilly outfit (she put it into her hyperspace sleeve). After that, she picked up the Ying-Yang Orb which she spent the months after the Mystic Square Incident practicing attacking with.

And next, the Exorcising Needles. These are given to her by Konngara after her trip to Makai just in case the first three items proved ineffective against an opponent. Though Reimu is a bit skeptical about the usefulness of the Needles (mostly because they looked more like oversized nails with Ying-Yang symbols on their heads than actual needles).

With that, Reimu then ran through her mental checklist to make sure she has everything she need.

That's when she remembered one last thing...

The shrine maiden went to the cupboard, and pulled open one of the dozen drawers, revealing its content: a stack of cards, each with holy runes drawn on them. _Spell Cards...__ I hope they work..._ She thought.

Reimu carefully removed the cards from the drawer. She had spent the past few months making and designing the Spell Cards whenever she isn't training to be shrine maiden. These cards came to be because Reimu was tired of having too little firepower against powerful opponents like Mugetsu, Gengetsu, Yuki and Mai, and made them as a means of storing large amounts of magic in portable vessels to be unleashed as firepower later. Of course, she needed help from Marisa with making them work. Furthermore, she hasn't got the time to test any of them.

Nevertheless, Reimu decided to take the entire stack of Spell Cards with her. She hoped they would actually work the way she intended.

With everything she need picked up, the shrine maiden then walked out of the shrine, ready for her first sortie...

"Are you sure you are up to the task?"

Reimu stopped after just a few steps away from the shrine upon hearing a familiar voice from behind her.

"It is my duty, after all." Reimu answered, without turning around to face the speaker. "_Someone_ has to do it..."

**Astral Knight**

**Konngara**

Konngara, sat directly in front of the donation box, nodded in response to Reimu's answer. "While I do not deny the capabilities you proved yourself to have at Mugenkan and Makai, you must know that..."

"Everything that can go wrong, will go wrong." Reimu interrupted. "Marisa told me that. I think she called it Murphy's Law."

"No..." Konngara shook her head as she shook her head. "One who possesses power must possess responsibility."

Reimu sighed. "Oh, that one. 'With great power comes great responsibility'? Marisa told me that several times today, so no need to say it again..." She said as she prepared to leave.

"There is something else I wish to talk to you about..." Konngara added, making Reimu pause in her tracks.

"Let me guess..." The shrine maiden said with a groan. "You want to comment on this ridiculous outfit I'm wearing right now...?"

"Not the clothes itself. But rather, the magic energy surrounding it..." The Astral Knight corrected.

Reimu perked up upon hearing that, turning around to face Konngara. "What about it?"

"I assume it wasn't your intention to activate the Sacred Hakurei Gohei?" Konngara began by asking.

"You mean this one?" Reimu asked for clarification as she pulled the extra-long gohei out of her sleeve. "It's not like I wanted to activate..."

All of a sudden, Reimu was enveloped by the same bright glow from before. The difference this time is that it lasted for just a second before fading away, the shrine maiden's outfit having reverted to the white haori jacket and red hakama skirt she was wearing before. The extra-long gohei also transformed back into the paper umbrella it was before.

"...it?" Reimu finished her sentence before blinking a couple of times in confusion.

Konngara nodded as she observed.

"This is all it takes to change back?" Reimu said, quite surprised but not enough for an exclamation.

"The true nature of the Sacred Hakurei Gohei continues to puzzle me until now..." Konngara explained to the best of her knowledge. "While you currently admit that you are not ready for its powers, you will know you are when the goddess Amateratsu let you know..."

Reimu waved her hand in denial. "As if I will ever be ready for such an embarrassing outfit..." She scoffed as she stuffed the paper umbrella into her sleeve. "Now then, tell Genji and Ruukoto that I will be back by... probably the evening..."

With that, the shrine maiden took off into the air, and then flew northwards where she thinks the scarlet aura came from...

...But not before flying straight into a flock of birds that are just passing by. "Pichun!" She exclaimed.

...

**Marisa's House; Forest of Magic**

_"~Getting down and dirty with a Procyon Lotor~"_

A song with catchy lyrics accompanied by loud instruments is playing in the background while Marisa picks up the supplies she will be needing to solve the Incident.

In actuality, Marisa have only a handful of supplies she needed, and she got all of them rather quickly. So for now, the witch is just dancing to the song that is being played by her music-playing device. Shade the cat, on the other hand, finds the song too annoying for her cat ears, and is covering them for the entire duration of it.

Since the song isn't being played at a very high volume, it doesn't drown out the knocking on the door, which Marisa did pause her dancing routine to answer while the song continued to play in the background.

Standing outside Marisa's house is the Little Witch Mob.

"Hi~" Ako and her gang greeted.

"What are ya girls doin' 'ere?" Marisa asked.

"Well, because of the red mist in the sky..." Ako is the first to speak up.

"Miss Mima cancelled today's lessons..." Markle comes next.

"We've got nothing to do for now, so we were wondering if we could borrow another one of your... DVDs?" Suza finishes for the gang.

Hearing that, Marisa's eyebrows narrowed. "Ya think I've forgotten about how ya already blew up one of my DVDs last week, along with the TV and DVD player ya bought from Rinno?"

The little witches then glared at Markle.

"I didn't mean to blow up _Doctor Strange_! There was a cockroach at that time!" Markle protested as she threw her arms into the air.

"You could've shot it-" "-with a sleep spell-" "-Dummy." Fey and Rey pointed out to the explosive little witch, speaking the first two thirds of the sentence separately before finishing the last third together.

Marisa took a step forward to defuse the argument before it can really begin. "Oh, never mind that. I forgive y'all..." She said as she put a hand on Ako's shoulder. "Not like a repair spell's hard to cast..."

With that said, Marisa turned and walked back inside her house. Just a few seconds later, she came back out holding a small flat casing in her right hand.

"Alright, ya girls, here's my favorite movie - _Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol 2_." The witch said as she passed the small flat casing to the Little Witch Mob. "Make sure ya ain't gonna break it again, else it's the last movie y'all get to watch."

The little witches accepted the casing. "Thank you, Miss Marisa!" They all said in unison before happily running off with their prize.

Though the happiness is short-lived for Ako as she then slammed face-first into a tree, which is immediately followed by a Kedama landing right on top of her. The klutzy little witch ended up needing help from her friends to get rid of the furry pests.

Marisa can't help but giggle at the sight of her little friends flying off with the DVD of her favorite movie.

At the same time, the song that has been playing in the background the whole time is coming to its end.

_"In these times of hardship, just remember: we are Gr-"_

Marisa ended the song by tapping on the song-playing device once.

"Well, enough foolin' round..." The witch told herself as she placed the song-playing device into the pocket of her coat. "Time to go kick some ass with Reimu!"

...

**North of Hoppou-ri Village**

To the north of Hoppou-ri - one of the five human-inhabited villages of Gensokyo - is a large rice field that stretches from the village's northern walls to a few kilometers away from it. Usually, farmers worked hard in the field, taking care of the rice crops by removing weeds and pests from them, while children would occasionally play games near it.

But today, the rice field is devoid of human activities, everyone having evacuated to their homes in the village when the scarlet aura appeared and enveloped the skies of Gensokyo, bathing everything in a red hue.

Or at least, that's what Reimu thought until she saw two people standing in the middle of the rice field while she is flying over it. One of those two people is almost invisible due to her red hair and equally red outfit blending in with the red hue of the background.

Although she's only ever run into them two or three times ever since they found asylum in Gensokyo last year, Reimu is still able to recognize them at first glance due to the various technologically advanced equipment they are often seen with (none of which the shrine maiden even knows a word for).

And so Reimu landed a short distance behind the duo and then walked toward them. "What are you two doing here?" She greeted them with curiosity.

**The Magical Land's Omni-disciplinary Scientist**

**Professor Okazaki Yumemi**

"Oh, hello there, Reimu~" The redhead professor turned around and greeted. "Chiyuri and I are just collecting data on this Scarlet Mist that has suddenly covered all of Gensokyo~" She then paused briefly to stuff a piece of candy into her mouth (which Reimu could tell is strawberry pink despite the red hue covering everything). "Rikako is back in the _Fantasy Legend_, helping us compiling the data." She added.

**Scientist's Assistant**

**Kitashirakawa Chiyuri**

"So I've heard that you've just become a full shrine maiden." The blonde assistant looked up from a mid-sized device she was working on. "Congratulations. But I'm sorry we missed the ceremony, though..."

"Actually, I'm kind of glad you missed it..." Reimu said as she recalled how Marisa had almost ruined it.

Chiyuri didn't know why Reimu said that, but she assumed the worst and decided not to pursue the answer.

"My condolences." Yumemi, who overheard it, said.

Reimu shrugged. She's glad that the outsider scientists decided not to find out the details. She'd commit _sepukku_ if they ever learn about her embarrassingly frilly outfit that came after the ceremony...

"Hey there, Little Miss Frilly Dress!"

And there goes the secret.

Blushing in embarrassment, Reimu covered her face with both her hands as Marisa hovered over on her flying broomstick.

"Oh, I guess ya figured out how to transform back..." Marisa remarked upon noticing that Reimu's clothes has changed back to normal.

"Transform? What do you-" Chiyuri asked, wondering what the witch was talking about, but stopped mid-sentence as she realized the implications. "Oooohhh~" The assistant stood up and walked toward Reimu. "I guess you're a magical girl now, eh~?" She teased and nudged the shrine maiden with her elbow.

Yumemi didn't make any comments. The redhead professor just laughed as she created a mental image of the "frilly dress" (which is not even close to the real thing).

Reimu's face became redder behind her hands, so much that the redness can be seen seeping over to her ears.

"Aw, shucks..." Marisa scratched the back of her head. "I was kinda hopin' to be the Maria Rambeau to Reimu's Carol Danvers..."

Chiyuri and Yumemi stopped laughing as they stood where they are, smack-jawed. Although the two outsiders get the witch's reference, they clearly never expected to hear that reference anywhere in Gensokyo. "What?"

Reimu, on the other hand, didn't get the reference, and even if she did, she is currently too embarrassed about the main topic to care.

Marisa quickly noticed the outsiders' reaction to her reference. "What's wrong? Ya look like ya just saw Freddy Krueger..." She asked the two.

"Was not expecting you to make reference to our world's pop cultures." Yumemi explained. "How did you-"

The conversation was interrupted when a boulder-sized danmaku appeared out of nowhere and fell into a nearby pool, creating a large splash of water that then rained down on everyone present.

"You missed!" A high-pitched voice is heard ranting somewhere close near by. "How could you miss?! They were three feet right in front of you!"

There is no need to guess who is responsible, as everyone turned their attention toward the source of the ranting.

Hiding behind an empty barrel is a pair of Flower Fairies. One is being slapped repeatedly by the other, who is apparently the one ranting.

It took those two fairies a while to realize they got their targets' attention in a way they didn't want, as they stopped what they are doing.

"Eh heh heh... Hi there, how would you like a sho-"

The Flower Fairies weren't even able to move another muscle before Marisa fired a spell that blew up the barrel, and them along with it.

"Is that all ya got!" Marisa taunted the defeated Flower Fairies as she spun her magic wand.

As soon as Marisa finished her taunt, a hundred more fairies appeared from all over the place and surrounded everyone.

"You had to ask..." Reimu chided Marisa for jinxing the situation.

"At least we ain't fightin' Ultron..." The witch said sheepishly.

* * *

Sorry, no Spell Card actions here. Though I did introduce the Spell Cards here. And you'll have my reassurance that Spell Cards will be used for real for the first time in the next chapter.

Speaking of Spell Cards, I decided to make this incarnation of the Spell Card be a very recent thing in-universe. So recent in fact, that Yukari has _no role_ in its creation, only Reimu and Marisa (so far) knows Spell Cards exist because they are the co-creators here, and that their intentions is to just make sure they can dish out as much firepower as their opponents can. As such, don't expect Rumia, Cirno, or the SDM crew to start flinging Spell Cards anytime soon, because here they _don't know_ about it yet. Because this version of Spell Cards are basically just spare ammo rather than legally required equipment, there won't be a Spell Card _Rules_, but a Spell Card _System_ instead.

That said, though, the original intention of the canon Spell Card Rules - that is, the winner cannot exterminate or eat the loser unless either combatants resorted to lethal methods beforehand - still stands.

Gee, Marisa is so familiar with outside world pop culture (down to having a DVD collection of the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe) that you'd think she's born in the United States and then got whisked away to Gensokyo later in her life. Well, that's definitely not true for her, since her dad is native Gensokyian. But as for her mom...

For why Chiyuri and Yumemi are so surprised at Marisa referencing _Captain Marvel_, it's not because she knew the movie and its elements. They were thinking of magical girl anime and manga at the time, such as _Sailor Moon_ and _Pretty Cure_ (in reference to Reimu's "frilly dress transformation"), and a reference to a western superhero movie is the last thing they expected to hear in an isolated realm like Gensokyo.

And as I've said before, I won't go Zun's route of pretending the PC-98 characters never existed, and thus will be giving them roles or at least acknowledge their existence here.

Finally, I've decided that there will be no more "on the next chapter" previews, since my way of writing stories often meant that the next chapter ended up having little to do with the given previews. That said, I'm sorry about saying "Reimu finding out that Spell Cards doesn't make things easier" in the previous chapter when it isn't established in this chapter at all.

"And that, as they say, is that."

_Afterword ends here._


	4. Spell Card Attack

**North of Hoppou-ri Village**

Fairies are dumb, mischievous, annoying, forgetful, and weak. Everyone living in Gensokyo knows that (except the fairies themselves).

But everyone also knows that fairies will, for some reason, become more aggressive when there's a major Incident going on. And that is exactly the case right now, with the Scarlet Mist making the fairies aggressive in their attacks against Reimu and Marisa.

Yumemi and Chiyuri hunkered down as danmaku began to fly from every direction, especially from Reimu and Marisa as they fired back at the fairies.

Although Yumemi's priorities were a bit skewed at the moment. "Chiyuri, are the instruments recording all this?" She asked her assistant.

As soon as the professor finishes her sentence, the device standing on a tripod - the most crucial of the research instruments - gets hit by a stray boulder-sized danmaku and explodes into pieces, with the tripod toppling over afterwards.

"Not anymore." Chiyuri deadpanned in reaction to the instrument getting destroyed.

At the same time, Reimu and Marisa continued their shootout against the fairies, who seemed to be relentless in their desire to take down the shrine maiden and the witch. And for ever 10 fairies that get knocked out, 20 more seemed to appear out of nowhere to take their place.

"Hey, Rei!" Marisa called out to Reimu as she fired at the fairies with her magic wand. "There's only the two of us and hundreds of 'em! We're gonna need more than what we can dish out _right now_!" She dodged a boulder-sized danmaku before firing a spell at the fairy that fired it. "Remember that thing we worked on?"

Reimu wished she could simply shoot her way through the swarm of fairies, like she did in the five Incidents she tackled last year. But Marisa was right, she need much more firepower than the individual shooting can give her in order to deal with this swarm of fairies.

"This better work..."

Still doubting what she is going to do, Reimu reached into her sleeve to pull a Spell Card out. Then she held the Card out in front of her face, and focused her magic energy into it.

The Spell Card didn't need much magic energy to start reacting. Within a split second, the Card began to shine brightly, enough that every fairy and Marisa stopped right in their tracks, and Yumemi and Chiyuri looked up from their position on the ground.

"**_Fantasy Seal_**!"

With a loud declaration, Reimu released the magic accumulated in the Spell Card, which manifested as five large orbs of energy in different colors that then shot out in different directions, wiping out every fairy that gets in their way.

The fairies started to stage a retreat in panic upon seeing their brethren getting wiped out of the air by the orbs of energy. But try as they might, the orbs were much faster, and could seemingly seek out targets on their own, and soon most of the fairies in the vicinity of the rice field are knocked out of the air.

The bloodless, non-lethal carnage ended with the orbs converging on a single fairy - the last one still standing - and then blowing her up.

The Spell Card stopped shining once its effects are over. Meanwhile, Reimu just hovered there, astonished by what she just unleashed.

"Holy... Expletive!" Marisa commented, her jaws wide open due to the sight she just saw.

Yumemi, however, was rather excited by the sight. "Mary, mother of God! That is even more awesome than the holographic fireworks display MIT showed the world on January 1st, 2100 A.D.!"

Chiyuri is impressed by the danmaku display made by Reimu's Spell Card. Not so much on how her redheaded professor is acting. "Do you need to act like a teenager..." She stopped herself upon realizing what she just said. "Oh wait, you _are_ a teenager. Never mind..."

Yumemi then turned toward her assistant. "Chiyuri, the instruments! Did they capture anything about the display?!" She asked excitedly.

"The only one that was supposed to have done it was wrecked by the fairies, remember?" Chiyuri said bluntly, while pointing at what is left of the tripod-mounted device.

Yumemi's excitement deflated quickly afterwards as she then pouted. "Remind me to armor the instruments when we get back..."

"You two..." Reimu spoke up, reminding the two outsiders of her presence. "Go hunker down somewhere safe. We're in the middle of an Incident right now, and you both saw how aggressive the fairies can be."

Yumemi and Chiyuri glanced at each other.

"She's right, professor." The assistant said. "The middle of a war zone is no place for us scientists."

"I was just about to say that." The redhead professor acknowledge. "Pack up everything, Chiyuri. We're going back to the ship."

With that, the two outsiders collected everything they've brought here, before activating their jet packs and flying away from the site.

"I guess this proves that Spell Cards are gonna work, right?" Marisa asked as she brandished a Spell Card of her own that she hasn't used yet. "Man, I can't wait to test out mine!"

Reimu, however, responded by shaking her head. "I'm glad that they work as I wished. But-" The shrine maiden then gestured toward Hoppou-ri Village. "I think we should watch _where_ and _when_ we use them."

Marisa looked at what Reimu is pointing at, and instantly got the intent of the message. "Uh, yeah. Gotta work on that. Ya ain't gettin' any respect if ya cause collateral damage all the time, as the Avengers found out the hard way..."

...

**Misty Lake south shores**

Reimu and Marisa continued heading northwards after dealing with the fairies at Hoppou-ri.

The girls' trek has led them to the southern shores of the Misty Lake. Despite the lake's thick mist and the red tint created by the Scarlet Mist, they can still see that something in the center of the Lake, deep within its namesake mist, is producing the Scarlet Mist.

"So I'm guessin' that whoever is causin' all this is right over there." Marisa pointed out.

"Obviously." Reimu responded bluntly. "And whatever might be causing it, I'm going to stop them."

Marisa glanced at the thick mist, then back at Reimu. "But we can't see a damn's worth in there! How are we gonna-"

Reimu suddenly became very alerted of something, as she scanned her surroundings.

"What's wrong, Rei?" Marisa, having no idea what is going o with the shrine maiden, asked.

"I think-" Reimu, feeling somewhat uneasy, answered. "-Something is approaching us-"

Without finishing her sentence, Reimu quickly turned around to swipe her gohei at a huge black blob that suddenly appeared behind her. The reflexive attack caused the black blob to reel back before sinking into the ground.

"A Youkai!" Reimu said.

Marisa didn't need to be told to get ready for a fight. "Whoa! That one came outta nowhere!"

"So keep your eyes out for it!" Reimu said as she summoned the Ying-Yang Orb to her side, and held out her gohei with her right hand while holding three Exorcising Needles with her left.

Marisa held her magic wand out, ready to blast any enemy that might appear suddenly. "It's a good thing we made those Spell Cards. Otherwise, it's gonna be one heck of a dogfight."

"If there is anything I've learned from last year, it is that nothing is ever easy." Reimu said while being vigilant of the surroundings. "And that Youkai tend to not play fai-"

Before Reimu can finish her statement, the huge black blob reappeared in the shape of a maw lined with sharp teeth.

The black blob closed its maw around Reimu with lightning speed, and then started to behave in a way that made it look like its chewing.

"Reimu!" Marisa became alarmed, as she produced one of her own Spell Card and prepared to use it against the black blob.

As the witch prepared her attack, the black blob suddenly stopped chewing as it began to expand uncontrollably.

It wasn't very long before the black blob burst like a balloon, as Reimu forced her way out of it with her gohei held out like a spear.

"How dare you eat the Hakurei shrine maiden?!" Reimu shouted at the black blob, which had disappeared again. "This is only my first day! I could've lost all respect!"

Marisa rolled her eyes. While she is glad that Reimu is not hurt, she is wondering why the shrine maiden is more concerned about losing her respect than, say, her _life_.

"Ya alright?" Marisa asked the shrine maiden.

"I am. Thanks for asking." Reimu answered as she adjusted her hair ribbon. "Some Youkai that was..."

The girls then noticed that the black blob appears to be reforming itself, as pieces of it gathered back together into a single spot. Once the blob reached its full size again, it then dispersed itself in a controlled manner.

Hovering there, at where the black blob was, is what appeared to be a little humanoid girl with red eyes and short blonde hair with a small red hair bow, wearing a black vest and skirt, and a white blouse with a red tie.

"You taste very... sweet~!" Said the little girl as she smacked her lips.

* * *

You can definitely guess who this is.

Sorry for the delay. I was so hyped about the premiere of _Avengers: Endgame_ that I totally forgot to write this chapter last week. It was a really hyped movie all over the world (with tickets here sold out _before_ April even began), and I've been looking forward to watch it too. "Whatever it takes", indeed!

Anyway, I originally planned for the black blob to be just that, a black spherical blob. But then Zun announced _Wily Beast and Weakest Creature_, and as I took a look at Reimu's unusual shadow in that game's title screen, I immediately thought to myself, "Hey, that looks like a form a certain shadow Youkai could use!" and here you have. What a way to introduce the first ever boss to use Spell Cards.

As I mentioned before, Spell Cards in the YMC-verse don't work the same way they do in canon, although the general idea of non-fatally subduing the opponent is still there. I don't need to remind you in every single chapter, so please remember it.

"And that, as they say, is that."

_Afterword ends here._


	5. It is Pitch Black

**Misty Lake south shores**

"Can I eat you?" Asked the innocent-looking blonde girl who Reimu and Marisa knew is a Youkai, while she spread her arms out.

"Didn't you just ate me?" Reimu replied with a rhetoric question.

"I wanted to taste you first~" The Youkai said childishly. "I'm sorry for being so rude~" She then lowered her arms, and curtsied. "Let me introduce myself~"

**Little Shadow That Came To Life**

**Rumia**

"My name is Rumia~" She introduced herself. "And I like to eat humans~"

Reimu and Marisa both blinked.

"Wow, that's pretty honest of ya..." Marisa commented.

"And you just made yourself clear that you're an enemy..." Reimu then added.

Rumia just giggled childishly. Apparently the two girls' comments didn't register to her childish mind.

"They say magic-capable humans taste better than Mundanes~" Rumia said.

That statement instantly rang alarm bells in Reimu and Marisa, as they started firing danmaku at Rumia.

The little living shadow was pretty agile. She easily dodged all the danmaku, while still giggling childishly.

"They were right~!" Rumia said, as she formed two small black orbs over her hands. "And I want seconds~"

Rumia then begins her attack by flinging the orbs out, which multiplied into a shower of black danmaku.

Reimu and Marisa tries to dodge the shower and then return fire like they've always been. But the little living shadow was very small and agile, and her shadow danmaku quickly multiplied from a shower to a thick barrage, making it very difficult to land a hit on her.

"Jeez, this is already damn tough for a first one!" Marisa exclaimed, as she produced a Spell Card of her own, along with a jar of something. "I guess it's time to say hello to my little friend: _**Stardust Reverie**_!"

As the witch cast her first Spell Card, magic energy flew out from the card and poured into the jar, which she throws out with all the strength her arm has. The jar then exploded, scattering its contents as danmaku at all directions.

The Spell Card didn't produce as many danmaku as Rumia's attack did, but its danmaku is placed in a formation that is too tight for even the little living shadow, resulting in her getting pelted several times and causing her to reel back a bit.

Marisa cheered at the success of her Spell Card. "Ha! Eat that, ya little canni-"

"Marisa," Reimu interrupted. "did you just use _my_ emergency candy stash as ammunition for your Spell Card?!"

Marisa shrugged in response. "Well, kinda..."

Hearing her response, Reimu angrily grabbed Marisa by her collar, and shook her. "Why would you?! I was saving them for after we solve this Incident!"

"Calm down, Rei!" Marisa apologized whilst the shrine maiden shook her. "I'll pay ya back double! I promise!"

Reimu continued angrily shaking Marisa. "Double is not enough! I want triple back! You hear m-"

The shrine maiden's overreaction is interrupted when Rumia reappeared and fired off another barrage of danmaku.

The two girls broke off their quarrel to avoid getting hit.

"This isn't over yet, _Genevieve_!" Reimu told Marisa as she threw a few Ofuda at Rumia.

"I said I'll pay ya back! Jeez, what a sweet tooth ya have..." Marisa responded and then sulked, as she then activated Orrerries Solar System with another Spell Card and started pelting Rumia with a barrage of danmaku.

Rumia easily dodged the barrage by flanking around the two girls. "Please don't push yourselves too hard, or you'll become too stiff and taste bad~" She casually said, as she conjured two small black orbs by her sides and fired black beams from them.

Reimu and Marisa both braced themselves to dodge the black beams, only to find out that the black beams weren't aimed at them at all. Both girls went to think that Rumia must've had a very lousy aim...

Until they both suddenly felt a sharp pain surging through their bodies.

Reimu pressed her left hand over her right shoulder - that is where she felt the sharp pain. "Wh-what is going on?! We weren't hit at all!"

"How should I freakin' know?! Magic?!" Marisa cried out. She pressed a hand over the left side of her waist, enduring the sharp pain while trying to keep herself balanced on her flying broomstick.

Rumia giggled. "Tehehe~ I'm sorry if this hurts, I'm softening you up so you'll be easier to chew~" She then fired two more black beams.

The beams went past Reimu and Marisa and once again, causing the girls sharp pain despite missing them.

"No one is chewing anyone today!" Struggling against the sharp pain, Reimu launched the Ying-Yang Orb at Rumia in retaliation.

Rumia dodged the Ying-Yang Orb by somersaulting over it. "What an energetic prey~" She said cheerfully. "You'll surely taste good~" The little living shadow then prepared to fire another pair of black beams.

Suddenly, the Ying-Yang Orb came back on its return trip to Reimu, and hit the little living shadow on the back of her head, which threw off her aim as the beams are fired.

This time, the black beams didn't cause Reimu and Marisa any sharp pain at all. If Rumia was aiming at something else to cause the girls sharp pain, then getting hit on the back of her head must have caused her to miss her intended target completely. Reimu and Marisa glanced behind them, and that's when they learn exactly what Rumia had been firing at with her black beams...

Their shadows. Although the scarlet aura had blocked much of the sunlight from shining upon Gensokyo, enough still made it through for everything and everyone to cast a visible shadow.

"Okay, I don't know how it works, but now I know that she was firin' at our shadows." Marisa pointed out.

"Then make sure our shadows don't get hit." Reimu said, as she took the opportunity of Rumia being disoriented by the earlier hit to throw some more Ofuda at her.

"Noted, and count me in!" Marisa responded, as she directed the multicolored orbs orbiting her to fire at Rumia.

The still disoriented Rumia took the full force of the retaliatory barrage, reeling back for each danmaku and Ofuda that hit her.

"Ow ow ow! This hurts!" The little living shadow cried out, as she raised her arms to shield herself against the barrage, to no avail. After spending half a minute getting pelted by danmaku, Rumia couldn't take it anymore, and transformed back into a black spherical blob before she disappeared by sinking into the ground.

Not taking any chances, Reimu and Marisa fired at the ground where Rumia disappeared into. When they're done blasting that patch of the ground a minute later, a crater was left in its place.

"Yeah, that's right, ya little cannibal!" Marisa proceed to taunt the little living shadow. "Run back to ya MOM!"

The witch then noticed Reimu rolling her eyes at the taunt. "What does her mother has to do with this?"

"I'm really referrin' to her mom, if she even has one..." Marisa attempted to explain the meaning of her taunt. "Ya see, it was meant to be a joke where one person mocks another person by insulting their moms..."

Reimu is further confused by the explanation.

"Ya know what? Forget it..." Marisa decided to not explain it any further. "Let's just call it a grave insult to her dignit-"

All of a sudden, several black spike-shaped danmaku shot out from the ground directly below the witch, shattering all four of the multicolored orbs that make up her Orrerries Solar System spell, which in turn brought down the shield that protected her.

"What the...?!"

Before Marisa could make any further reactions, Rumia reappeared as a black spherical blob with a maw lined with sharp teeth, which she immediately closes around Marisa with lightning speed.

"Marisa!" Reimu worriedly cried out, as she prepared to pelt Rumia with more Ofuda.

But Rumia didn't even try to chew Marisa. The witch was spat out almost as quickly as the living shadow had closed her maw around her.

"Ugh, now that's gross!" Marisa, left dangling on a tree after being spat out, complained.

Reimu breathed a sigh of relief.

In the meantime, Rumia transformed back into her humanoid form. She looked like she was retching, as though having just ate something disgusting.

"Eew, you taste _very_ bad!" Rumia loudly complained while scrubbing at her tongue in an attempt to get the bad taste off.

Marisa, for some reason, seems enraged by the little living shadow's statement. "What was that?! I tasted disgusting?! How dare ya!" The witch summoned her flying broomstick over, then hopped onto it before producing another Spell Card from under her witch hat. "I'll tell ya what's gonna taste _really_ bad for ya!"

Upon activation, the Spell Card glowed brightly and spawned a large magic circle in front of Marisa.

Reimu's eyes widened as she recognized that particular magic circle. It was the exact same one Marisa summoned back at Mugenkan and Pandemonium last year. The shrine maiden quickly descended toward the ground and took cover behind a boulder.

"Yippe ka yay, ya lil' cannibal!" Marisa said as the magic circle began to emit an increasingly intense bright glow. "**_MASTER SPARK_**!"

With that, the mountain-destroying beam emerged from the magic circle, producing an ear-shattering noise as the multicolored pillar of destructive light tore through the air in its way. Rumia, who was smack in the middle of its trajectory, was unable to get out of the way and took the full force of the beam.

The beam lasted for a full minute before dying down, leaving a trail in its wake that went much further north toward where the scarlet aura came from. In the middle of the trail laid Rumia, having survived the evisceration but is mostly charred and knocked out.

"Let there be light, bitch." Marisa quipped as she put the spent Spell Card back into her hat. She then tipped her hat in a way to make herself look more impressive.

Reimu poked her head out from behind the boulder where she took cover. The shrine maiden, having been disoriented by the ear-shattering noise produced by the Master Spark, shook her head a bit to get a better hold of her position.

"Marisa, you seriously need to, as your mother often puts it, dial things down a bit..." Reimu told Marisa. "And why would you be offended about a Youkai telling you that you taste bad?!"

* * *

Nothing better than to end the fight against Rumia with Marisa's iconic Master Spark.

As you can see here, this version of Master Spark can be casted without needing the Mini-Hakkero. All Marisa need to do here is to activate the Spell Card, and then brace herself before unleashing her love-powered annihilation. Of course, this version of Master Spark is so much more powerful that if it wasn't a Spell Card, it would produce about as much killing power as a _nuclear bomb_.

With that, I'll end off this chapter with the reassurance that the next chapter will see the debut of a certain nine-ball ice fairy.

"And that, as they say, is that..."

_Afterword ends here._


	6. The Misty Lake

**Misty Lake**

After defeating Rumia, Reimu and Marisa left the little living shadow behind as they continued their way northwards, toward the center of the Misty Lake where the Scarlet Mist originated from.

"As much as I'm glad that we kicked her ass," Marisa decided to start a conversation. "I kinda felt bad tying her to a tree..."

"Me too..." Reimu agreed. "Even though she tried to eat me, and you..." She then remembered something. "By the way, why are you so offended when she said you tasted bad?" She asked Marisa.

The witch shrugged. "I dunno. I just felt like it was pretty offensive to be told that, for some reason..."

Reimu rolled her eyes. "You're a strange person."

Marisa shrugged. "Mom sometimes say strange stuff too. So _maybe_ I got it from her?"

Reimu rolled her eyes. _Gaijin..._ She thought to herself.

The duo are then alerted to the presence of incoming foes by a burst of danmaku flying past them.

"We've got company!" Marisa said as she activated Orreries Solar System (as a Spell Card rather than having to take time drawing a complex circle of runes). "Ah, I wish I could listen to some Led Zeppelin or Black Sabbath right now..."

A swarm of fairies quickly came into view. Some actually emerged from beneath the surface of the lake, and wasted no time firing danmaku at Reimu and Marisa. There are also some fairies in fancy dresses and sun hats, wielding swords (that are somewhat well-made) as their weapons.

The girls easily dodged the barrage, then wasted no time firing back at the fairies, taking down a dozen in quick succession. As with usual, more fairies continuously appeared to replace the ones that are taken out.

Reimu then launched the Ying-Yang Orb out, taking out one fairy after another via a series of ricochet.

The ricocheting Ying-Yang Orb seemed unstoppable as it continued its streak of dropping each fairy it hit, then ricocheting to another (sometimes with the effect of causing the just-knocked-out fairies to misfire danmaku at one of their own). Some fairies even tried to attack the Orb, either by shooting it with danmaku or trying to hit it with their swords, all to no avail.

A green-haired fairy with gilded wings is the next to be targeted by the Ying-Yang Orb. However, the fairy blinked out of existence at the last second, causing the Orb to plunge into the lake and killing its knockout streak.

That fairy soon blinked back into existence right in front of Reimu, as she then fired a barrage of danmaku at the shrine maiden at near point-blank.

Caught by surprise, Reimu barely managed to dodge the barrage, getting grazed several times in the process. She then tries to shoot back, only for the gilded wings fairy to blink away again.

"Be careful, Marisa!" Reimu called out, while pressing a hand on her waist where she was grazed. "One of the fairies can teleport!"

"Yeah, I saw that pesky little pest!" Marisa replied, as her Orreries Solar System spell continued to thin out the fairy swarm.

As soon as the witch finishes her reply, the gilded wings fairy reappeared directly behind her, firing a surprise burst of danmaku that took out one of the multicolored orbs of Orreries Solar System. Marisa immediately turns around to shoot at the fairy, only for her to blink out of existence again. As the witch gets temporarily distracted by a group of sword-wielding fairies, the gilded wings fairy reappeared and quickly took out another multicolored orb, then disappeared again as Marisa turned to her direction.

"Dang, that fairy's pretty smart!" Marisa complained as she continued firing at the other fairies with the remaining two multicolored orbs. "Ain't ever seen one like her!"

The gilded wings fairy then reappeared, and quickly made short work of the remaining two multicolored orbs, thus disabling Orreries Solar System. The fairy then blinked away again as quickly as she appeared.

"Oh, jeez!" Marisa panicked just as the fairies noticed her loss of firepower and began to focus their attacks on her.

Marisa would've been overwhelmed had Reimu not tossed a few Ofuda into the incoming swarm of fairies to take them out in a series of explosions.

"I hope you have more Spell Cards than the ones you've used so far..." Reimu told Marisa as she summoned the Ying-Yang Orb over, and then fired danmaku at the few fairies that the exploding Ofuda did not take out.

Marisa adjusted her hat. "I've got five more Cards with me. And thanks for the save, Rei." She then produced her magic wand and resumed shooting at the fairies.

...

After the remaining fairies have been dealt with, the gilded wings fairy reappeared before Reimu and Marisa again. This time, however, she appeared to be nervous about something.

"What is she doing?" Reimu wondered. She prepared herself to attack just in case. "She was very serious moments ago, and now..."

"She looks like she wanna say something..." Marisa told Reimu. She then turned toward the fairy. "Ya wanna say something? C'mon, spit it out."

The gilded wings fairy nervously fiddled with her fingers for a bit. She was about to say something when...

"WHAT ARE YOU TWO DOING TO ELF?!"

A fairy with blue hair, wearing a blue dress and hair bow charged into the scene loudly, startling both Reimu and Marisa.

"Nobody messes with the friends of the Strongest!" The blue fairy then proudly boasted while wearing a smug grin on her face, as well as crossing her arms in front of her chest.

Reimu and Marisa both locked eyes with this loud, scenery-chewing fairy who came out of nowhere all of a sudden, certain that she is a threat.

"You sounded like you think of yourself as a big shot around here..." Reimu said to the blue fairy. "So pardon me for being from somewhere else. Who are you?"

**The Strongest(?) Ice Fairy**

**Cirno**

"I'm Cirno, the fairy of ice. But you can call me the Strongest!" The blue fairy introduced herself in a scenery-chewing way. "And this is my best friend, Lunate Elf." She added while gesturing at the gilded wings fairy who is cowering behind her.

**Greater Fairy**

**Lunate Elf**

"I-I-I'm sorry if Cirno hurts you later..." The gilded wings fairy, Lunate Elf as she is named, stuttered apologetically before blinking out of existence.

The blue fairy, Cirno, has not noticed that her friend has teleported away. "You're trespassing on my turf! And I'm going to show you why you shouldn't have!" She told Reimu and Marisa. "Come on, Elf, let's ki-" She then turned to tell her friend, and only then did she notice that Lunate Elf has disappeared. "Huh?"

Meanwhile, the shrine maiden and witch who acted as the audience to this lengthy introduction of the ice fairy, glanced at each other.

"What a dumbass..." Marisa commented. "Feels like one of those cheesy moments from _Thor: Ragnarok_..." She then mumbled to herself.

"Yes. A dumb-_arse_ indeed..." Reimu, finding the ice fairy's attempt at chewing the scenery to be somewhat funny, agreed with the witch's former comment.

The two girls' comment, however, seemed to have drawn Cirno's attention in a way that appear as though she felt insulted.

"What was that?! Did you just call me dumb?!"

* * *

And now, introducing the Strongest(?) fairy in Gensokyo...and her friend.

Yep, this chapter is a set up for the introduction of Cirno and Daiyousei - who will be called Lunate Elf in the YMC-Verse - and showcase just how much of a dumbass the former is before we get to the battle against her.

As for why Elf eventually stopped attacking Reimu and Marisa just before Cirno's appearance, that's because this incarnation of Cirno is a bit more aggressive than her canon self, and people have sometimes been actually hurt by the cold she emits (the Little Witch Mob were lucky they got away unscathed back in _Little Witches' Misadventures_), and Elf here is trying to persuade the girls to just turn back, but got interrupted by Cirno before she could utter a word.

And sorry for being so late with updating this story. Got really busy with real life matters that are out of my control. By the way, I'm planning to open a dedicated Discord channel for the YMC-Verse. It's not open yet, but I will announce it on the official _YMC_ Tumblr page once I'm done. So stay tuned!

"And that, as they say, is that..."

_Afterword ends here._


	7. The STRONGEST

**Misty Lake**

"THOSE WHO CALL ME AN IDIOT, ARE THE IDIOTS!"

Following her angered yell, Cirno began to slowly unleash her powers, causing the surrounding area to become as cold as the middle of winter, and the surface of the Misty Lake around her immediate area to freeze instantly.

...Or not, as that is all happening in the ice fairy's head. From Reimu and Marisa's POV, Cirno is just assuming a pose that resembled an idiot trying to look terrifying and ended up looking silly instead.

"This one is so full of ego..." Reimu deadpanned as she watched Cirno "raging".

"She looked like she ain't got no brains _or_ brawn..." Marisa also deadpanned.

The girls watched on with raised eyebrows as Cirno continued her "rage-induced empowering" phase.

"Should we just shoot her right there?" Marisa pondered the option as she raised her magic wand.

"Go ahead. I was going to, myself." Reimu responded to the witch, as she raised her gohei with the same intent.

Having made their decision, the girls proceed to fire at Cirno, while the ice fairy is still focused on her "empowerment".

Cirno did notice the attack. In response, she cancelled her "empowerment phase" to form a chunk of ice which she used as a shield to block the danmaku.

"I guess you're the impatient type! In that case, we should make this quick!" The ice fairy announced, then formed a sword made of ice before charging toward Reimu and Marisa.

...

"Pache..."

"Yes, Remi?"

"I can feel the defenders of this land coming close."

"And?"

"I want them to see this manor in its mighty glory, let them know just how powerful I am, and how little hope they have at defeating me."

"This is just a rundown mansion your father claimed as a spoil of war 500 years ago, which you then refurbished with all kinds of unnecessary decors that made it look more silly than intimidating. If anything, the defenders you mentioned will ignore how it looked, and just barge their way in..."

"Nnnggggghhhh... You've just ruined the atmosphere again! Can't you ever be anything but a deadpan?! Ju-just make sure they can see this manor!"

...

While Cirno did the smart thing using a shield made of ice, she simultaneously did the stupid thing by fighting with a sword against two people with experience in danmaku, one of who also has experience in hand-to-hand combat. Doesn't help in the ice fairy's case is that there is nothing superpower-related about her swordplay aside from her flight capability.

That being said, Cirno is still a fast-moving small target. So actually hitting her is difficult even if her attacks are pathetically easy to dodge or parry.

Reimu raised her gohei to parry a diagonal slash from Cirno. She then raised her legs in an attempt to kick the ice fairy away, but is unable to reach her. Reimu opted for a headbutt instead, which worked as it sends Cirno backing away, disoriented by the blow to the head.

"Strange..." Reimu wondered as she rubbed her forehead. "I thought a headbutt will disorient both the target and the user..."

In the meantime, Marisa took the opportunity to fire at the disoriented Cirno.

Cirno recovered fairly quickly, as she raised her ice shield to block the danmaku. However, ice isn't as tough as wood or metal, especially for a shield that is to be small and light enough for a fairy to carry. As such, on top of the damages it has already suffered, the ice shield didn't last more than a few seconds before it shattered, allowing the rest of Marisa's danmaku to hit her.

Astonishingly, Cirno withstood what should have downed a fairy instantly. But it still strained her a lot to stay in the fight after taking those hits.

"You may be able to hurt me, but I, the Strongest, won't go down so easily!" Cirno declared, then dispelled her ice sword and raised both her hands up, firing what appeared to be a weak-looking blue beam into the sky.

Reimu and Marisa didn't think much about the ice fairy's weak little gesture. Then they noticed pebble-sized chunks of ice beginning to rain down from the sky.

"Ha! Have a taste of my special: Icicle Fall!" Cirno declared and then laughed loudly. "_Ice_ to see yo- oh..."

The ice fairy's gloating grinded to a halt when she realized that the rain of ice didn't reach far away enough to even bother Reimu and Marisa.

"Really...?" Marisa rolled her eyes at both the hilariously ineffective attack and the lame pun that came before it. "That is the lamest pun I've ever heard. Even James Bond can do better..."

"Lame?!" Cirno became outraged. Apparently ice fairies have next to no tolerance for minor insults. "I'll show you what is-"

Cirno's rant was interrupted thanks to the Ying-Yang Orb slamming right into her face.

"Most fairies may be stupid," Reimu complained as she called the Orb back to her. "but they are still smart enough to know when to _shut up_!"

At the same time, Cirno tumbled out of the air and fell into the lake with a splash after being knocked out by the Ying-Yang Orb.

It was very anti-climatic, but Reimu is glad that the noisy, scenery chewing ice fairy is gone for now.

"_Ice_ to see ya too, Frosty!" Marisa followed on with a quip, then taunted the ice fairy by pulling one of her eyelids. The witch paused as she noticed her companion's confused look. "Uh... terrible pun intended?" She added.

"Pun? What pun?" Reimu asked with a quizzical tilt of her head.

"It's a pun with the words 'nice' and 'ice'. Y'know, because they rhyme?" Marisa tried her best to explain to Reimu, only to confuse the shrine maiden even more.

That was when the witch remembered that she and her companion literally aren't speaking the same language - Reimu in Yamato, and Marisa in her western language. The translation spell is the only reason they could even understand each other (or any other non-Yamato people in Gensokyo, for that matter). Marisa figured that the pun doesn't translate well into Yamato, and so Reimu heard a more straightforward sentence from her perspective.

"Oh right. Ya don't speak a lick of my language, while I don't speak a lick of yours. Literally." Marisa said as she scratched the back of her head in realization. She then spent the next few seconds wondering what she sounded like if she - from Reimu's perspective - spoke entirely in Yamato.

At that moment, Cirno emerged from the surface of the lake, lower body still underwater, before waving a clenched fist at Reimu and Marisa, and yelling, "You may have beaten the Strongest, but you haven't seen the last of-"

"Oh shut up, ya loudmouth!"

Marisa didn't even wait for Cirno to finish her declaration. She just fired lightning from her magic wand at the lake, electrocuting the ice fairy as well as any fishes that are unfortunate enough to be near her at the moment. A few seconds later, Marisa dispelled her lightning spell, and there is no need to guess what happened to Cirno.

"I know fairies can resurrect themselves at a later time, but isn't that a bit overkill?" Reimu asked Marisa as she un-summoned the Ying-Yang Orb.

"Ain't got no such thing as overkill!" Marisa cheerfully answered.

Just as Reimu is about to open her mouth to say something, she is interrupted by a bright flash that occurred for a split second.

"Did you see that?" Reimu asked, blinking her eyes several times as she try to compute what that split second bright flash was.

"I sure did..." Marisa answered. "Is something comin' our way?"

* * *

Strongest? More like **loudest**.

Anyway, here's the anti-climatic battle against Cirno that you all have been waiting for. It took so long because I was very busy with real life stuff lately, and this might be the case for the rest of year.

Also, if you think the battle against Cirno is anti-climatic, that's because it _is_ my intention. Cirno may be the strongest fairy in Gensokyo, but she is still a fairy, and it has already been established in canon that fairies in Gensokyo are so low on the power scale that even ordinary humans with the slightest combat capabilities can hand them their asses easily (before you say LoLK, that doesn't count due to some rock-paper-scissor things going on). Cirno may be above other fairies in the power scale, but she is still below everything else, and thus can't possibly beat anyone (except perhaps the Little Witch Mob, and that's only because they were ambushed) in a straight fight.

Before I end off this chapter, I would like to announce that the official Young Maiden's Chronicles Discord server is finally up and running (well, since about three weeks ago as of this writing). You can find the invite link to it in the YMC Tumblr page. In addition, I'm planning to resume updates to _Mystical Knowledge _soon, seeing as I've left Bella and friends in the shed long enough. Also, I currently have an independent secret project in mind. What is this secret project, you might ask? Well, all I can say is that it'll be another fan remake. You'll see soon enough.

"And that, as they say, is that."

_Afterword ends here..._


	8. Don't Simply March In

**Misty Lake**

"Is something comin' our way?" Marisa asked as she rubbed her eyes after the bright flash earlier.

Reimu merely blinked in response to the bright flash... until she sensed something. "Or maybe _someone_ wants us to head their way..."

At first, there was nothing. But very soon, the mist began to disperse in an unnatural way.

"Izzat what I think it is?" Marisa asked with doubt in regards to what is revealed by the parting of the mist.

At this distance, it was impossible to see the small details, especially when literally everything looks red thanks to the scarlet aura. But one can still tell that it is a mansion. More precisely, a western mansion painted in different shades of red, topped by a clock tower with a golden clock face.

"That must be what's creating the scarlet aura." Reimu said, taking note of the crimson stream of energy shooting up into the sky from the mansion. "And whoever is living in it must be powerful."

"Whoever they are, we'll just have to kick their asses to end all this!" Marisa proudly said, as she tipped her hat. "Because that's what heroes do!"

"Nobody is a hero here." Reimu countered. "It is my duty as the Hakurei shrine maiden to take care of anyone and anything that threatens Gensokyo, and you are just tagging along."

That said, the shrine maiden then flew off toward the mansion, leaving Marisa behind.

"Tagging along? Jeez, you ain't fun sometimes..." Marisa complained as she followed Reimu toward the mansion.

...

The closer Reimu and Marisa got to the mansion, the more intense everything felt. But the intense feeling is not a mental one. Rather, it is due to them being so close to the source of the scarlet aura.

"No kiddin'..." Marisa remarked, noting the scarlet aura erupting continuously from the mansion. "Whoever's doin' this must be one heck of a powerhouse."

"And probably has an ego as big as Gensokyo itself." Reimu added.

As the girls approached the small island that housed the mansion, they quickly noticed the complete lack of fairies anywhere near it. The ones that have been trailing behind them didn't just hesitate, but outright _refused_ to go any closer.

"The fairies aren't getting any closer, despite us being very tempting targets right now..." Reimu took note just as the fairies dispersed toward every direction save for the mansion. "Whoever is in that mansion, they scared the fairies so much that they'd rather keep away from it than approaching like the arrogant idiots they usually are..."

Nothing else notable happened as Reimu and Marisa continued their approach toward the mansion before touching down on the small island that it resides on.

"Well, someone's tryin' real hard to tell us not to mess with 'em..." Marisa remarked.

"I agree..." Reimu said.

The mansion looked more imposing when the observers are this close to it. Even with the scarlet aura painting the entire atmosphere in a shade of red, one can still see that most of the mansion is painted in such a shade of red that blood is the first thing to come to anyone's mind; the darkness beyond all of the mansion's windows make one wonder what sort of nocturnal beast dwell in it; intimidating-looking stone sculptures of demonic creatures lined the edges of the roof; the extravagant clock tower actually having diabolic-looking spears as clock hands... It is as if the tenant wants to send Gensokyo and its residents a message that they are not to be trifled with...

Although one aspect of the mansion's front gate made the rest of it really hard to take seriously...

"If that's really the mansion's gate guard, then the tenant may have to reevaluate their choice of employees..." Reimu commented.

"Yep..." Marisa agreed with the shrine maiden.

Standing in front of the mansion's front gate is a red-haired woman in a green oriental dress, who has somehow managed to fall asleep while standing upright (and is even snoring in the meantime).

Reimu and Marisa stared at the sleeping gate guard in disbelief.

"Oh well, that just makes it easier for us to get in." Marisa said as she hopped on her broomstick. She then slowly approached the gate guard, and lightly poked her cheek. "Hard to believe she ain't fired yet-"

All of a sudden, the witch felt something wrapping around her right leg. She looked down, and saw that it is the gate guard's hand that's grabbing her.

At that moment, the gate guard's eyes opened in an instant ("Ah, crap..." Marisa uttered), before proceeding to yank Marisa off her flying broomstick and smash her right into the ground several times at the pace of a pendulum, leaving Marisa lying in a crater by the time it is over.

Reimu covered her mouth and gasped as she bore witness to the event.

Despite being smashed several times into the ground, the last of which is hard enough to leave her in a crater, Marisa is still able to crawl out of the crater to rejoin Reimu by her side.

"Are you alright?" Reimu worriedly asked Marisa.

"That hurt a lot, but I'm okay!" Marisa answered as she slowly stood up, with much of her body still sore from the smashing. "Now I know how Loki felt about bein' smashed by the Hulk..."

Reimu blinked in response. That's Marisa G. Kirisame and her _gaijin_ humor as usual, alright. Always have the mood to snark about something...

That being said, though, the mansion's gate guard has already woken up, and has already assume a battle stance as she glared at the two girls.

It looks like she won't let anyone through without a fight, and a fight certainly looks inevitable at this point...

* * *

Woo yeah! Finally dealt with the busy times IRL! And boy, am I glad to be able to get back to working on this story (and everything else I'm working on as well)! Although I'm kind of sorry that this chapter is so short, because I wanted to get it over with ASAP.

That being said, here's the newest chapter, where Reimu and Marisa will have to get through our favorite Chinese gatekeeper before they can get inside the SDM.

In other news, I will be putting _Exotic Inventory_ on hold until I finish the _EoSD_ arc of _Seasonal Fantasy_, while I will be resuming updates to _Mystical Knowledge_ after seven months of hiatus, with the latest chapter to be posted in around today or tomorrow. Speaking of _MK_, I've been pondering if I should up its ratings to T on Fanfiction Dot Net and Teen And Up Audiences on AO3, since there are some very sensitive topics of the nearly-political kind that are prevalent (despite remaining not the focus) in its later chapters.

Before I sign off, you guys have probably noticed on the YMC Tumblr as well as my FF and AO3 profiles that I've posted _Luna Nova: School For Witches_, my fan remake of _Little Witch Academia_. Give it a read if you like _LWA_ as well!

"And that, as they say, is that..."

_Afterwords end here..._


	9. Mistress of Kung-Fu

**Outside the Scarlet Mansion**

"Identify yourselves!" The redheaded gate guard demanded as she assumed a combat stance.

Marisa, despite having just got smashed several times against the ground like a hammer, stepped forward and assumed a cool-looking pose. Although she made sure to kept her distance from the gate guard so the same thing doesn't happen again.

"The name's Marisa G. Kirisame! Me and my friend are gonna kick your ass, then your boss's ass so we can get rid of this scarlet aura that's all over Gensokyo!" The witch, with her magic wand aimed at the gate guard, hammily introduced herself.

The gate guard maintained her pose, but one can still see that she is scanning her surroundings.

"That is strange..." The gate guard suddenly became confused as she took note of the scarlet aura enveloping Gensokyo and blanketing everything in a red tint. She even broke her stance to stand and speak like a normal person. "Nobody told me anything about this..." She then tilted her head quizzically.

Reimu lowered her arms and glanced at Marisa. "Apparently, whoever caused this Incident did not inform all of their employees about their plans."

Marisa lowered her magic wand. "Doubting your boss now? How 'bout-" She then attempted to make an offer...

Which is immediately interrupted and simultaneously rejected as the gate guard re-assumed her combat stance. "Trying to get me to defect? I don't think so!" She said defiantly.

Reimu glared at Marisa for thinking of trying that. "That sounded more like an attempt at bribery than diplomacy..." She pointed out.

In response to the interruption and glare, Marisa simply shrugged. "Oh well. That was worth a sho_WHOAH_!"

Reimu quickly grabbed Marisa by her collar, and pulled her back just in time to avoid a danmaku the gate guard shot at her.

The danmaku went on and blew up a nearby tree.

Reimu then counterattacks by throwing several Ofuda at the gate guard, who easily parried them all by literally punching them out of the air. This parry had both Reimu and Marisa going wide-eyed.

After finishing her parrying strikes, bluish-white aura began to radiate from the gate guard's clenched fists.

**Mistress of Kung-Fu**

**Hong Meiling**

"My name is Hong Meiling, and I am obliged by my duty as the gate guard to keep all uninvited guests out! So bring it!"

...

**Inside the Scarlet Mansion**

"Remi, it seems that Meiling has just engaged those two 'defenders' in battle..."

"Good. This will be fun to watch..."

"Whatever you say, Remi. I will be in the library if you or Sakuya needs me..."

"Can't you ever be not so deadpan?!"

...

**Outside the Scarlet Mansion**

The now-named Meiling begins her attack by punching the ground with her aura-coated fist, sending out a shockwave that tore through the ground as it made its way toward Reimu and Marisa very quickly.

Reimu is able to dodge the shockwave by simply taking off into the air. But Marisa, unable to fly without her broomstick that she dropped behind Meiling after the smashing earlier, had to resort to conjuring a magic shield to block the shockwave, which didn't work as the attack went right through the shield and knocked her over her feet.

"Marisa!" Reimu cried out.

"Don't worry!" Marisa responded as she got back up to her feet. "Keep that damn bitch distracted so I can get my broom back!"

Whether Reimu heard that or not is unknown, as she then countered Meiling's attack by firing danmaku at her.

Turns out Meiling's aura can double as armor, allowing her to parry those danmaku as though she was wearing metal gauntlets.

With the gate guard momentarily distracted by Reimu, Marisa pointed her magic wand at her fallen broomstick and casted a spell, ""PULL!"

The spell caused the broomstick to be pulled toward Marisa. However, Meiling noticed it and with her lightning-quick reflexes, snatched it mid-trajectory before snapping it in half over her knees and throwing the halves over the gate of the mansion.

Marisa definitely isn't happy about that. "Oh, I'm so _gonna_ royally screw ya. But before I can do that..." She then excuse herself to the sidelines where she wouldn't get in Reimu's way or become one of Meiling's targets. "Be right back!"

At the same time, Reimu continued to pelt Meiling with danmaku and Ofuda, which she all easily parries or dodge. Realizing that her shots aren't getting through, Reimu decided to call forth the Ying-Yang Orb and launch it toward Meiling.

Meiling attempted to parry the Orb like she did the other projectiles, but the Orb is much more powerful than she expected, as she gets knocked off her feet and sent flying into the gate hard enough to cause it to buckle. With that impact, Meiling seemingly passed out, with the aura on her hands fading away afterwards.

Reimu, not quite believing that it would be so easy, landed on the ground and slowly approached Meiling. She prodded the gate guard with her gohei just to be sure.

"So that's it?" Marisa wondered out loud as she emerged from her not-hiding spot. "I thought for sure she'd be like Shang-Chi on magical steroids or somethin'..."

Reimu turned to glance at Marisa, and rolled her eyes as she doesn't get Marisa's reference. "What are you talking ab-"

All of a sudden, Reimu gets the feeling that she _has to_ duck down, which her body did without her conscious input. As she unconsciously ducked down, she saw Meiling's aura-coated fist flying over her head and hitting Marisa right in the face, knocking Marisa right off her feet.

Amazingly, all Marisa got from that superpowered punch is a single tooth getting dislodged, which she then spits out. "Ooh, I'm gonna be feelin' that 'til next morning..." She snarked as she got up from the ground.

As amazing as Marisa's durability is, Reimu is more amazed by the fact that she subconsciously knew an attack was coming, and subconsciously dodged it. _Was that some kind of intuition?_ Reimu wondered, still trying to process all of it in her mind.

Her so-called intuition activated again, this time telling her to get off the ground. She did so by jumping, again subconsciously, just in time to see Meiling's low kick sweeping under her feet.

Still in mid-jump, Reimu then countered with a flying roundhouse kick across Meiling's face.

Merely flinching from the kick, Meiling continued the fight by delivering a series of punches and kicks. All of which, to her surprise, are easily dodged or parried by Reimu.

"I know you are thinking how this is possible. Trust me when I say that so am I..." Reimu told Meiling, after the former had caught one of the latter's punches.

Reimu then broke defense by kneeing Meiling in her abdomen, then followed that with a sweeping kick to knock the gate guard off her feet.

As soon as Meiling falls flat on the ground, Reimu fired a danmaku at her, but missed the shot on purpose as a warning.

"I think this is where your martial artist honor tells you that you were beaten fair and square?" Reimu quipped as she kept her gohei pointed at Meiling, ready to fire danmaku if necessary.

Meiling looked like she is poised to suddenly hit back...only to sigh as she relaxed her hands and dispelled the bluish-white aura. A sign that she admitted defeat. "I'm so going to lose my job for this, but you're right. You win." She said as she raised both hands up.

"No tricks?" Reimu asked with suspicion.

"Where I'm originally from, that would be cheating. And dishonorable." Meiling answered truthfully.

Reimu eyed Meiling for a few more seconds before putting the gohei away. "Good! Save us both the trouble of...well, you know..." She then extended a free hand to help the gate guard up.

Just as Meiling is about to grab Reimu's outstretched hand, however...

"SLEEP!"

Marisa casted a spell at Meiling, putting her to sleep instantly, with her head hitting the ground immediately afterwards.

"What the Makai, Marisa?!" Reimu turned toward her friend. "She had just admitted defeat!"

"I ain't gonna take any chances." Marisa shrugged as she twirled her magic wand. "Heroes do it all the time in movies. Well, most of 'em do..."

Reimu sighed in disbelief in response to Marisa's excuse. "I'd never understand _gaijin_ mentality..."

"By the way..." Marisa then raised another question. "Were you always so good at martial arts?"

Speaking of that, Reimu looked at her hands, and wondered about the fight with Meiling earlier. "No. In fact, I actually don't know any martial arts aside from some pretty simple kicks..." She explained. "It was as if my body was acting on its own when I fought against her..."

At the same time, Meiling lied fast asleep on the ground, snoring as she's dreaming about dominating her opponents...

* * *

And that's how the fight against Meiling is settled...

So Reimu has a new ability that's being manifested? Well, sort of. That's how Reimu's intuition works in the YMC-verse. It's kind of similar to Spider-Man's famous Spider-Sense, with the added feature of Reimu instinctively parrying or dodging any attacks including those she couldn't and/or didn't see with her own eyes. It's...kind of complicated, so just read on and see how it develops.

Marisa comparing Meiling to Marvel's Shang-Chi isn't completely random. Though as the MCU's _Shang-Chi and the Legends of the Ten Rings_ hasn't even begun production yet as of this writing (14th of August, 2019), I only made the comparison due to them both being chi-based kung-fu fighters. If you're wondering why Marisa is referencing a movie that hasn't even begun production yet, don't forget that the YMC main series are set in the 2110s, so the movie is over 90 years old already from Marisa's POV.

"And that, as they say, is that."

_Afterwords end here._


	10. Into the Scarlet Mansion

**Front yard, Scarlet Mansion**

Leaving Meiling behind at the mansion's front gate, Reimu at Marisa trekked through the extravagant front yard on their way to the mansion itself.

"What is the use of having all these flowers if they won't ever be having any sunlight?" Reimu wondered as she walked by a row of exotic-looking flowers which like everything else are blanketed in a red tint by the scarlet aura.

"Well, most villain-types ain't very smart when it comes to such minor details. So maybe there's that..." Marisa said with a shrug as she followed right behind.

"That doesn't sound like someone who should be up to villainy like taking over Gensokyo..." Reimu said as she walked by bone-dry fountain that doesn't look like it was ever activated.

"I know some truly dumb villains who essentially defeated themselves thanks to their own stupidity." Marisa added. "They ain't real people, of course, but ya get the point."

"But this is reality..." Reimu argued.

Marisa doesn't even try to argue back. She remained silent for the remainder of the trek through the mansion's front yard, while mentally reminding herself to drag Reimu to the movie marathon she planned to have tonight. But for now, she has an Incident to solve, and a villain to stop with her friend...

...

**Somewhere inside the Scarlet Mansion**

"Remi..."

"I know, Patchy. The defenders of this land has come to my door step."

"You mean _our_ doorstep..."

"Why don't you go and give them a _cold_ welcome, Patchy? I want to see what they are capable of."

"..."

"Well?"

"As you wish, Remi..."

"Thank you. Now if you excuse me, I'm going to take a short nap. Oh, and be sure not to let them reach the basement. She's a pain in the fangs to deal with..."

...

**Main hall, Scarlet Mansion**

*BOOM*

With a large explosion, a hole is blown on the main door of the mansion.

"Thank Markle that we have Explosion Spells!" Marisa said gleefully as she entered the mansion through the hole.

Reimu entered right after Marisa, coughing a bit due to the dust from the explosion. "I thought you're bad influence to your little witch friends. Turns out the opposite is true as well..." She deadpanned.

Marisa gave a smug chuckle in response. "There's a saying that goes like this: 'Go in with a bang'."

Reimu crossed her arms and raised her eyebrows. "I thought it was _out_, not _in_?"

Marisa's smugness faded slightly. "Oh right! How can I forget 'bout it? Jeez..." She said awkwardly. "Wait, where the heck did ya hear that, anyway?"

"Your mother..." Reimu answered. "I heard her saying that when setting up the fireworks for the New Year's Eve party last year."

"She did? Guess I gotta talk to Mom more often..." Marisa said.

"Enough talk." Reimu interrupted as she raised her gohei. "We're not alone here."

Reimu is right. All over the extravagant hall (which looked like the one from Shinki's Palace complete with a fancy staircase, but with more bright colors), what looked like the mansion's maids all stopped their work to stare at the two girls who blew a hole in the mansion's front door.

Marisa scanned the entire hall (the scarlet aura had not affected the inside of the mansion, so everything is in their normal colors) as she counted the number of maids.

She counted 42.

"Hey there! We came here 'cause of a scarlet aura that's covering the whole dang place. Outside, that is. Can anyone of ya point us to y-" Marisa tries to do her usual 'thing', but is interrupted by Reimu.

"Look carefully, Marisa." Reimu informed the witch. "Despite looking like humans, they're _not_. They're fairies..."

Reimu was right (again). At first glance, these maids looked just like normal people. But on closer inspection, their fairy wings become very apparent.

And apparently, they doubled as the mansion's security, wasting no time to drop their current tasks as they all pulled what looked like muskets out of hyperspace.

"Oh, hell!" Marisa cursed as the fairy maids aimed their muskets and fired...

...

**The Voile**

As the sound of Reimu and Marisa engaging the fairy maids echoed thorough the mansion corridors, a purple-robed magician made her way through the library to the designated reading area.

"Get the spell ready, Assistant, because we are expecting visitors shortly..." The magician informed her assistant.

"What kind of visitors, Miss?" The assistant asked.

At that moment, the sound of an explosion rung out from the corridors and echoed thorough the library.

"The violent kind..." The magician answered.

The assistant glanced over her shoulders at the library entrance as the sound of gunshots, spell-casts and explosions got louder and closer.

"Right away, Miss!" She turned back to the magician as she acknowledged the command.

...

The skirmish in the mansion corridors lasted for half an hour, ending with a fairy maid getting blown through the door by Reimu's Ying-Yang Orb.

"Jeez, never expected fairies to put up that much of a fight..." Marisa, slowly hovering through the destroyed doorway, commented as she shook debris off of her hat, which is also covered in bullet holes.

"I never expected fairies to be this skilled at being security guards either..." Reimu also commented as she hovered through the doorway after Marisa. She then leaned down to pick up a musket dropped by one of the fairy maids. "Ugh...and being barbaric too..." She added as she threw the musket over her shoulders.

The musket clunked a fairy maid who is coming to on her head, knocking her out cold once again.

Marisa looks amused by Reimu's actions. "They're barbaric...because they use a lotta guns? Ya still think so, a year since we met Little Miss Princess Police?" She asked, referring to Kotohime.

Reimu didn't answer. She just moved on by herself.

Marisa shrugged in response. "Huh. Whatever..."

As the girls moved on, they took note of their surroundings, finding themselves to be in a huge library with rows upon rows of bookshelves on two floors. A chandelier is hung in the middle of the ceiling, illuminating the library with warm lighting together with various smaller lamps hung all over the library.

"Who would need this many books for?" Reimu wondered as her eyes scanned around the library.

"Either the tenant has a hobby of collectin' books, or we're gonna be dealin' with a magician next..." Marisa stated as she checked out one of the bookshelves.

Reimu took notice of Marisa's statement. "What makes you think the latter might be the case?" She asked.

"Well, Miss Mima has a lotta books about magic in her hideout, and me and my witch friends occasionally gave 'em a read when we need to know about something." Marisa explained. "These books look similar to those, so I figured they might-"

Both girls paused when they noticed some of the books moving out of the bookshelves on their own accord.

The living books removed themselves from the bookshelves, then opened wide and turned the open pages to face the girls. Spell circles began to materialize in front of each of the books.

"Hey, Rei..." Marisa said as she slowly raised her magic wand. "Ya ever heard of the phrase, 'out of the frying pan, into the fire'?"

Reimu immediately understood the situation, as she raised her gohei too. "No, but I get the context of the phrase."

Danmaku soon poured out from the living books in huge numbers...

* * *

I'm guessing that some habits from during my busy times (that ended a few weeks ago) stayed with me, because I subconsciously felt like I need to meet a deadline and so rushed this chapter. So I'm sorry if you found this chapter dull.

Anyways, Reimu and Marisa will soon be meeting Patchouli and Koakuma, and will be engaging them in battle. You want to know how this version of Patchouli will be fighting the heroines? Well, just read on to find out...

Fun fact about the fairy maids: seems that the official artists can't unanimously agree on what they look like. They were depicted by Hirasaka Makoto in _Touhou Sangetsusei_ (the Three Fairies manga) as being as tall as human adults, but by Aki Eda in _Silent Sinner in Blue_ and ZUN in the games as looking just like any other fairies. I decided to go with Hirasaka's depiction, and handwave their physical appearance as them being a race of fairies unique to wherever the Scarlet Mansion originally came from. Oh, and they're also a little bit smarter and more competent than Gensokyo's fairies, in case you haven't noticed their using muskets.

"And that, as they say, is that."

_Afterwords end here..._


	11. The Voile

**The Voile, Scarlet Mansion**

The living books weren't any more resilient than fairies, and they practice the same mob rush tactics as fairies. What makes the living books different than fairies is that each individual living book packs as much magical firepower as a Doom Fairy.

"ZAP!" Marisa casted a spell. From the tip of her magic wand, a bolt of lightning shot out at a living book, then jumped from one living book to another, taking out several dozens in a chain reaction.

Reimu released several Ofuda, taking out dozens more living books in a series of explosions.

Despite the girls' efforts, the living books continued to press on against them in huge numbers.

"Dammit. Shoulda remembered that a library's the worst possible place to run into godsdamn livin' books..." Marisa cursed as she and Reimu are backed into a wall by the increasingly huge number of living books.

With her back touching a wall, and living books surrounding her and Marisa from every other direction, Reimu tries to think of a way she or Marisa could get out of their current predicament.

There's just way too many living books for even the Ying-Yang Orb to handle, and she doesn't have enough Ofuda with her to take out all the enemies.

"If we are going down, then it won't be without a fight..." Reimu said. She then raised her gohei in a defensive manner...

Before noticing that the living books have ceased their attacks. They still have the girls surrounded and pinned down, but all of them have stopped firing, and instead are just sitting still in the air.

"Huh? Why'd they just stop attackin' us?" Marisa wondered out loud. She was preparing to take the opportunity to blast them with a powerful spell, but was stopped by Reimu.

"Could be because whoever is controlling them told them to stop." Reimu said. "Which means..."

"Their controller has arrived." A third voice finished the shrine maiden's sentence.

Immediately after hearing that voice, Reimu and Marisa noticed what appeared to be a magician with long purple hair and clad in purple pajama-like robes, holding a magic tome with one hand as she hovered several feet over the floor.

**Magister of the Five Elements**

**Patchouli Knowledge**

"My name is Patchouli Knowledge, and I am the master of The Voile, this library you are currently in." The magician introduced herself, as she slowly descended toward the floor. "I assume you are here to deal with the Scarlet Mist that currently envelops this realm?"

Marisa didn't take any steps forward like she usually would upon meeting a new adversary. She did, however, raise a fist in an attempt to make herself look cool. "Why else would we be blastin' through this mansion, kickin' asses and takin' names in the meantime? Ya ain't lookin' at the Defenders of Gensokyo for nuthin'!"

Standing right next to her, Reimu face-palmed in reaction to Marisa's hammy declaration, uttering "_Gaijin_ mentality..."

The magician, Patchouli, made no emotional reaction toward Marisa's hammy self-introduction. "Then you have come to the right place." She said as she slowly landed on the floor. "However, while it is true that I created the Scarlet Mist, I am merely following the or-"

Patchouli's speech paused abruptly as she suddenly went into a coughing fit.

Reimu rolled her eyes upon seeing this. "Now I feel bad about having to beat her up, even if she is an enemy with direct relation to the Incident..."

Marisa had a similar reaction to the sight. "Really? Ya ain't even got a good health. Ya sure ya can take on either one of us?"

Patchouli's coughing fit lasted for just over 10 seconds before she recovered. "Perhaps not in a duel of physical prowess..." She said as she straightened her posture. "As I was saying, I am merely following the orders of the mistress of this mansion when I created the Scarlet Mist..." She then continued her speech that was interrupted by the coughing fit earlier. "And now that I have given control of it to her, you need to defeat her if you want to end it..."

"And I'm guessin' it is still your responsibility as a friend to protect her and kick our asses?" Marisa asked as she took a step forward.

"Yes." Patchouli answered bluntly. "But how can you, a mere human, ever hope to stand a chance against me, much less her?" She then added, in a somewhat intentionally insulting tone.

That statement appears to have struck a sensitive point in Marisa, as the witch narrowed her eyes and tightened her knuckles. "Let me ask ya another question first..." She said, her tone indicating a build-up of anger. "You're a magician, so that means you can sense how much magic power other people have, right?"

"That is true..." Patchouli answered. She realized that statement earlier must have pushed a sensitive spot, as she performed a gesture with her right hand to summon a small magic circle over her tome, just in case.

Marisa gritted her teeth and tightened her knuckles even further, to the point that it became very obvious that she is about to go off.

Reimu, being the most familiar with Marisa's personality, immediately figured out what is about to happen. "Marisa, please don't take it personally. Just calm do-"

"Reimu..." Marisa interrupted, as she slowly raised her magic wand. "You take care of her flunkies..."

The witch suddenly thrust her magic wand into the air, launching a magical flare that flew into the ceiling of the library and blasting a chunk out of it.

"This sorry excuse of a magician who has an even bigger ego than Doctor Strange..." Marisa, with her absolute fury apparent, stated. "She's _mine_."

With her intention made clear, Marisa then proceed to fire off a huge bolt of electricity, which zapped and destroyed all the surrounding living books on its way toward Patchouli.

With a wave of her hand, Patchouli raised a magic shield just in time to deflect the electricity. The deflected electricity arced off into multiple directions, tearing apart every furniture, pillars and bookshelves that got in the way.

Soon, the electricity died down, and Patchouli dispelled the shield to prepare for a counterattack... which she couldn't perform as Marisa's flying broomstick suddenly slammed tip first into her, knocking her back several feet. Patchouli managed to not get knocked off her feet, though the effort to do so is enough to send her into another coughing fit.

Marisa caught her flying broomstick as it flew back to her on its own. "How's that for a weakling, bitch?" She taunted the purple magician. "Ya ain't even got a broom! And ya just got a taste of what I can do with it!"

Patchouli said nothing as she recovered from her second coughing fit. She performed a different gesture, which added another ring of runes to the magic circle over her tome. In doing so, five crystal that are about as big as she is materialized around her, each one with a different color from the others.

"I'm sorry for unintentionally insulting you earlier..." Patchouli said to Marisa, though it is pretty obvious that her apology is faked. "But it is my duty to get rid of you from this mansion. And for that, I will be using the powers of the elements..."

Marisa, owing to her study of magic with Mima, knew what Patchouli meant by "the elements": the elements of Fire, Water, Wood, Metal, and Earth. To summon the powers of those five elements required a very high level of understanding in elemental magic, which Marisa herself never was able to learn. The fact that Patchouli is able to summon them with no effort tells Marisa that she must be a very skilled magician.

That, however, did not cause Marisa's will to falter.

"So what? Ya think ya can beat me by just being smarter?!" Marisa yelled out, before casting her spell to activate Orreries Solar System. "I'm all 'bout brute force, I tell ya! Prepare for an ass-kickin'!"

...

As Marisa started her duel against Patchouli, Reimu who was left where she was watched the event unfold with amazement. She also reminded herself not to push Marisa's berserk button, now that she knows what it is, and the consequences of pushing it.

The shrine maiden then remembered that Marisa told her to take care of the "flunkies"... which she couldn't do anything about because they have all been taken care of by the witch.

"Still, I should go help Marisa..." Reimu told herself as she took off from the floor. She was about to join Marisa in fighting Patchouli when the same instincts that helped her beat Meiling triggered again, telling her to stop right where she is, which she did.

A pink beam of light appeared exactly a second after that, burning a hole on the floor mere inches in front of her.

"I can't let you do that!" Said a woman who has long red hair, wears a jet black suit and skirt, as well as what appeared to be two pair of demonic wings - a large pair sprouting from her back, and a smaller pair from the sides of her head. "Miss Patchouli summoned me as her Assistant, and I have to do whatever she says!"

Reimu sighed. Marisa told her to deal with the "flunkies", and now a "flunky" has just presented herself to keep the shrine maiden busy. Reimu hoped that her arrogant, hot-blooded westerner of a friend can take care of Patchouli.

And just like that, the two girls dueled their respective opponents in opposite ends of The Voile...

* * *

Like I said, I felt like I must meet a deadline, and had to limit the chapter to a brief minion fight and a pre-boss battle conversation just to be able to get it posted ASAP.

But I promise that the next chapter will definitely be of Marisa vs Patchouli, and Reimu vs Koakuma. And the two fights will be happening at the same time, just like when Reimu and Marisa fought Mugetsu and Gengetsu in _Spirit Dream_.

Speaking of Koakuma, I wanted to give this version of her a proper name beyond something descriptively direct like "little devil", but couldn't think up of one. So I guess I'll have to handwave this Koakuma's lack of a name as Patchouli not bothering with one when she summoned her.

Speaking of Patchouli as well, there's actually a reason for her somewhat directed hostility against Marisa. But since there's no way to put said reason in the story without making it sound like needless exposition, I'll drop it right here as a sort of Word of God below...  
Patchouli had to deal with a particularly annoying American merchant that acted like a total cowboy in the one week preceding her performing the ritual that dropped the Scarlet Mansion into Gensokyo. She agreed to Remilia's request to "have the Scarlet Mansion be transported to another realm" primarily just so she can get away from that jackass buckaroo, _only_ to end up meeting _another_ jackass buckaroo (Marisa) in the place she least expected to have any Americans at all (Gensokyo). Hence Patchouli's directed hostility against Marisa.

"And that, as they say, is that..."

_Afterwords end here._


	12. Not-So-Mere Human

**The Voile**

When she thought about it for a bit, Marisa found the whole situation to be a bit funky...

At one moment, this purple beansprout of a magician calling herself Patchouli showed up, saying that she created the Scarlet Mist under orders from mistress of the mansion. Then Patchouli said that she passed control of the Scarlet Mist to the mistress, and that defeating said mistress is now necessary to put an end to it. Then Patchouli said that anyone who wanted to meet the mistress will have to go through her first...

At first, Marisa thought that she and Reimu should be able to handle Patchouli if they worked together.

But then the purple beansprout just had to insult her for being a "mere human".

It was initially nothing personal, but Patchouli had just made it personal for Marisa...

Which is why the witch is using Orerries Solar System to pelt the purple magician with enough danmaku to demolish a large house. Reimu would've called this overkill, but right now, Marisa only wants to prove Patchouli wrong.

Patchouli was no slouch either. While her coughing fits earlier has proven that she isn't physically fit and thus is unable to dodge danmaku like Marisa could, her elemental stones gave her a protective shield similar to Marisa's own Orerries Solar System, allowing her to tank everything Marisa could throw at her. In addition, the elemental stones, as it turns out, could each individually pump out more danmaku than all four multicolored orbs of Orerries Solar System combined.

So when Patchouli counterattacked, Marisa is forced to cease her house-demolishing barrage to evade the hill-pulverizing barrage aimed at her (although the immediate concern is to the barrage taking out the multicolored orbs which would then dispel Orerries Solar System and the shield it provides) by flying behind a bookshelf.

That bookshelf didn't last more than three seconds before it was pulverized into splinters by Patchouli's barrage, forcing Marisa to make a dash toward another bookshelf, which lasted just as briefly against the barrage. Marisa realized that Patchouli's massive firepower meant that taking cover is just as bad as standing out in the open, and so she decided to stop hiding and focus on dodging instead.

"Geez, for someone who _owns_ a library, she sure had no freakin' problem smashin' it up..." Marisa thought to herself as she tried her best to avoid getting hit.

Marisa dodged Patchouli's barrage for a bit before flinging a slicing spell at the magician's elemental stones.

The sound of a blade bouncing off a hard surface indicated that the spell didn't work.

"I appreciate your ability to evade my attacks and pull off a counterattack..." Patchouli temporarily paused her attacks as she told Marisa. "However, you need to try harder than that."

The purple magician then resumed her attacks, spraying a huge amount of danmaku and laser beams at the witch.

"Dangit!" Marisa cursed as she braced herself for the attack.

...

Meanwhile, Reimu saw how Marisa was having trouble with Patchouli, and wanted to give her a hand, in spite of what the witch told her.

Unfortunately for the shrine maiden, she is currently being kept busy by Patchouli's assistant.

The assistant's attacks aren't powerful, or massive in volume. But she is very persistent in her attacks, and very good at dodging attacks too, as Reimu has troubles landing any hits with danmaku, Ofuda, or the Ying-Yang Orb.

Reimu swerved to the left as the assistant fired a pair of laser beams at her. She then fired back at the assistant, who dodged the shots before continuing with another pair of laser beams.

_Damn it! Where is that intuition that helped me get through the front gate?!_ Reimu mentally swore as she continued dodging and counterattacking as best as she could.

All of a sudden, several stray danmaku and laser beams from Marisa's and Patchouli's duel shot toward the direction of Reimu and the assistant, interrupting their fight as they both backed off in order to not become victims of friendly fire by their respective allies.

Reimu recalled chastising Marisa about stray shots back at the farmlands of Hoppou-ri. She reminded herself to watch out for stray shots, and to chastise Marisa about it again later.

The assistant quickly recovered from the shock of almost becoming friendly fire fodder. "Well, that was a shock, almost becoming victims of friendly fire." She said casually. "So, where were we aga-"

Reimu decided not to wait for the assistant to finish speaking, so she launched the Ying-Yang Orb at her opponent while she is distracted.

The assistant did notice the attack, and simply moves out of the way.

"Oh, so that's where we were! Now I think we should raise the game, don't you think?" The assistant said, before enveloping her whole body in a pink aura as a form of powering up.

Reimu clenched her fists. The assistant's power-up phase isn't very strong, but isn't weak either. If anything, this could take a while...

"How about this?" The assistant taunted. "Doubting your ability to beat me n-"

Her speech was interrupted again, this time due to her taking a direct hit from one of Patchouli's larger and more powerful danmaku that went astray. The danmaku was large enough that it took the assistant with it in its trajectory, pushing her across the Voile into a wall.

Reimu flinched as the large danmaku exploded on impact with the assistant literally right in the middle of it. _Wasn't expecting that, but thank the gods for it..._ She thought to herself.

The large danmaku itself reminded the shrine maiden that she still has another enemy to beat in this library, and a friend to help...

...

Marisa is running out of options.

Most of her attacks are not very effective against Patchouli's five elemental stones, and she's already down three of the four multicolored orbs that made up Orerries Solar System. If she loses one more of the orb, she'll lose the shield provided by the spell, and be at the mercy of Patchouli's powerful attacks.

Marisa, taking cover behind a marble pillar, started to regret telling Reimu she can handle this herself. "Yeah, sure, telling ya friend you can handle this yourself only to realize that ya bit off more than ya can chew. _Real smooth_, Marisa..." She chastised herself as Patchouli's danmaku and lasers tore through her surroundings.

She overworked her brain trying to come up with a usable tactic when Patchouli stopped attacking all of a sudden.

"Huh? Why the heck did she stop?" Marisa wondered, as she took a peek from behind her cover.

It turns out Patchouli stopped attacking because she just had another coughing fit. Marisa was glad about this, as it gave her some breathing room as well as a chance to retaliate.

"Well, that works too. Sucks to be in poor health."

Jumping out of cover, the witch guided her last multicolored orb into position, aiming and then firing a rainbow laser at one of the five elemental stones.

This time it worked, as the rainbow laser tore through the elemental stone representing Water, causing it to shatter into tiny pieces.

Patchouli recovered from her coughing fit right at that moment. Her stoic face expressed dissatisfaction about losing one of the stones.

"Attacking me when I'm helpless..." Patchouli said with a scowl (or as much as a stoic face can scowl, anyway). "Weren't witches like you supposed to duel honorably...?"

Marisa scoffed in response. "Heh. I dunno how long it has been since ya stepped outta this library, but in the world I was born into, it's all 'bout bein' pragmatic!"

Patchouli narrowed her eyebrows. "Pragmatic, you say...?" She then moved her hand over her tome, rearranging the position of the remaining four elemental stones behind her. "Then I will show you what pragmatism truly is..."

Just as Patchouli is about to begin her next phase of attacks, the Wood elemental stone inexplicably shattered into pieces as something smashed its way through from behind the purple magician.

"What...?" Patchouli uttered in disbelief.

The same object quickly came back and almost smashed the Earth elemental stone had Patchouli not maneuvered it out of the way in time.

That was when Marisa squinted her eyes and noticed what the object is: Reimu's Ying-Yang Orb.

"You told me to take care of the 'flunkies', and I just did." Reimu told Marisa as she caught the Ying-Yang Orb after calling it back to her. "Or rather, this purple magician did, via friendly fire."

Marisa blinked for a bit before she chortled. "Friendly fire... HA! And _I'm_ the 'mere human'!" She then proceed to mock Patchouli. "Ain't really a pro if ya accidentally take out ya own teammate!"

Patchouli broke her stoic face and made an obvious scowl upon being mocked for her accidental mistake. "Bloody buckaroos..." She cursed under her breath.

"By the way, ain't ya gonna show me what pragmatism really is?" Marisa then added as she twirled her magic wand. "How 'bout I give ya a hand?"

Saying that, the witch then aimed her magic wand at something on the ceiling above Patchouli.

"BLAST!"

With a loud chant, a magic missile spawned from the tip of the wand and launched itself toward its target: the base of a large ornate chandelier.

Patchouli gasped as she realized what Marisa's intent was.

An explosion obliterated the base of the chandelier as the magic missile impacted it. No longer having anything keeping it on the ceiling, it began to plummet toward the purple magician standing right below it.

In a moment of panic, Patchouli (whose frequent coughing fit meant that she cannot move very fast and thus prevents her from getting out of the way quickly) commanded the remaining three elemental stones to target the falling chandelier. While the chandelier is mostly made up of glass fractals which are easily taken care of by the barrage of danmaku and laser beams, it is still a rather large chandelier, not to mention that its _steel_ frame is tougher than the fractals and thus much harder to break apart.

As Patchouli is kept busy trying to reduce the falling chandelier to harmless tiny pieces (the shield provided to her by the elemental stones can shrug off an impact, but it is the stones themselves that she is concerned with), Reimu and Marisa took the opportunity to (along with being pragmatic) focus their fire on the elemental stones.

Of course, Patchouli is so focused on taking out the falling chandelier that she didn't notice being fired upon until the Earth stone was blown up by Reimu's Ofuda. And even then, it was too late to do anything as the chandelier landed with a loud crash, burying the purple magician under a pile of expensive glass and steel.

Reimu flinched at the sight. "That is going to hurt..."

Marisa, on the other hand, gleefully blew a raspberry at Patchouli. "How's that for a 'mere human', ya jackass!"

Reimu turned toward Marisa. "All that just because she insulted you?"

Marisa simply shrugged in response. "Says the girl with weight issu-"

Reimu grabbed Marisa by her collar upon hearing that. "I dare you to finish that..." Reimu threatened while glaring straight into Marisa's eyes.

"I'm so sorry..." Marisa nervously apologized as she got reminded what Reimu's berserk button is.

Both girls quickly forgot about the personal issue when they noticed Patchouli digging herself out of the pile of glass and steel that was the chandelier. The purple magician is unhurt thanks to the shield provided by the elemental stones. Although the shield probably isn't there anymore due to the elemental stones not surviving the crashing of the chandelier.

Reimu let go of Marisa, and pointed her gohei at Patchouli in anticipation of an attack. Marisa did the same with her magic wand.

Rather than resuming with her attack, Patchouli just raised a hand to signify her surrender, then coughed for a bit as she swiped some glass particles off of her. "That was... very impressive..." She told Marisa. "I stand corrected. Perhaps you are not a 'mere' human, after all..."

"Anything else ya wanna say?" Marisa asked as she kept her wand pointed at Patchouli.

Patchouli remained silent for a few seconds before answering, "I'm sorry for insulting you..."

Marisa looked like she accepted the apology, as she lowered her magic wand, prompting Reimu to lower her gohei as well.

"Now, which way to your mistress?" Reimu interrogated.

Patchouli answered by simply pointing behind her, at an ornate door on the second floor of the library.

"Thank you." Reimu responded. "And I'm sorry in behalf of myself and Marisa for wrecking your library, even if you did most of the damage yourse-"

Without warning, Marisa suddenly raised her magic wand again, and blasted Patchouli in the face with the same magic missile spell from before.

Patchouli exclaimed "Mukyuu!" as the magic missile blew her into a bookshelf, which then collapsed onto her with all its weight, burying her underneath.

"Your apology ain't sincere enough!" Marisa quipped as she dispelled Orerries Solar System. "Take that, ya Doctor Strange wannabe!"

Reimu reeled back in surprise. But having seen something similar happening to Meiling, she isn't as shocked about it, though she is still pretty shocked. "Again?! Why did you have to... Oh, never mind. I could never understand you..."

* * *

And that, my dear readers, is why you do not insult the black-and-white witch.

Anyways, real life's catching up with me again, so expect delays to future updates that I have no control of. Although the delay for this chapter can indeed be partially blamed on Writer's Block. Sorry.

"And that, as they say, is that..."

_Afterwords end here._


	13. Perfectly Elegant Preview

**Scarlet Mansion**

"Y'know, that library back there had a lot of cool books I would've loved to get my hands on." Marisa lamented as she and Reimu left the Voile behind and traversed through another one of the mansion's corridors. "Shame that it all went up in flames."

"That was inevitable when you have a danmaku fight in an enclosed space." Reimu said as she flew to Marisa's right. "Like I pointed out back at the village: collateral damage."

"Yeah, yeah. I get it." Marisa responded. "A lotta heroes got into big trouble by causin' a lotta collateral damage, even if it was unavoidable-"

Both girls paused - in both speech and movement - as they took notice of their surroundings.

"Izzit me, or is this part of the mansion missin' something?" Marisa wondered.

"If you're talking about the security, then yes." Reimu acknowledged as she took her gohei out. "It's too quiet."

"Maybe that's cause we're gettin' close to the evil overlord who lives here?" Marisa offered an answer. "I mean, the decals in this hallway sure suggest it is the ca-"

Reimu suddenly shot her left hand out at the front of Marisa's face, surprising the witch as she came to a halt in midair.

On closer inspection, it seems that Reimu has caught an ornate silver knife that suddenly appeared barely an inch right in front of Marisa's face. The shrine maiden also caught in her left hand an identical-looking knife that appeared, also barely an inch, right in front of her own face.

"We're not alone." Reimu said as she let go of the ornate knives, which disappeared before touching the floor.

Marisa raised her magic wand. "So we've got ourselves an invisible person now?" She wondered as she scanned the corridor.

"No..." Reimu said as she carefully looked around. "When the knives...popped into existence just now, I can only feel the enemy's presence for a split second. Whatever abilities they have, invisibility isn't one of th-" She paused as her intuition suddenly went off like it did back at the fight against Meiling. Her subconscious practically screamed at her to get down, which her body did without any conscious input. "Get down!" Reimu, with conscious input, yelled at Marisa as she got down.

Marisa didn't even question it, as she dispelled the flight magic on her broomstick and intentionally crash-landed onto the hard marble floor.

Both girls looked up just in time to see a wall of the same ornate knives flying past where they had been a moment ago. The knives disappeared all at once after flying past their intended targets.

"What kind of ability is that?!" Marisa exclaimed while nursing her forehead for hitting the floor too hard. "We almost became human pincushions!"

"I don't know..." Reimu said as she got up and summoned the Ying-Yang Orb. "But I know that fighting them won't be easy..."

Reimu's intuition went off again, as she then lunged forward to dodge a rain of knives that suddenly appeared.

Marisa noticed the knives just in time to roll out of the way.

The knives, with their targets having got out of the way, clattered against the marble floor. Each of the knives quickly disappeared almost immediately afterwards.

"No shit." Marisa cursed as she got up. "We're dealin' with 'nother teleporter like that sadistic demon maid from Makai."

"I hope not..." Reimu said with a shudder, recalling everything that had happened during the fight against Yumeko last year.

"Me too." Marisa said, also with a shudder. "One excruciating torture session is more than enough f-"

Marisa was interrupted when a knife suddenly appeared and drove itself into her chest. Shocked expression hung on the witch's face as she moved her free hand toward the knife.

Reimu screamed as she tried to run over to Marisa to help her. But then her intuition went off as her arms raised themselves to catch the knife-wielding hand of a person who suddenly popped into existence, with the tip of the knife practically touching the skin on her forehead.

As the shrine maiden mustered all her arm strength into keeping the knife from going any further, she found herself staring into the pair of bright red eyes the enemy has.

She then raised her left leg in an attempt to kick the enemy in the abdomen, only for the enemy to vanish before her feet can connect, causing her to trip forward.

Reimu threw her arms forward to break her fall and avoid face-planting into the floor, only for the latter to happen anyway as a foot pressed itself on her back, forcing her to lie flat against the floor.

Reimu turned her head just enough to see out of the corner of her eyes the enemy putting a knife against her neck.

"Perhaps you and your friend will be the first two people of this land to try and fail a raid on Lady Scarlet's mansion." The enemy said with an icy cold tone.

**Perfect Elegance**

**Izayoi Sakuya**

"Let I, Izayoi Sakuya, be a lesson on why it is a mistake." The enemy, now identified as Sakuya, said as she raised her knife-wielding hand up, ready to stab the knife into Reimu.

Sakuya's execution of Reimu was interrupted as she paused to stare at a potion vial that Marisa dropped on the floor. Sakuya didn't know what the potion vial is, so she just looked at it in confusion...

But Reimu did, so she closed her eyes right before it went off in a blinding flash.

The blinding flash broke Sakuya's concentration and caused her to reel back.

Reimu took this opportunity to shoot Sakuya several times with danmaku before finishing her off by launching the Ying-Yang Orb straight at her face.

Surprisingly, that wasn't enough to knock Sakuya out cold, but it did hurt her enough to force her to withdraw, as she vanished into thin air once again.

With Sakuya out of the way, Reimu quickly got up and went to Marisa.

"Please tell me you are all right!" Reimu said worriedly as she removed the knife from Marisa...

...To find that it never even reached Marisa's skin, as the witch apparently wore a piece of armor under her clothes.

"Chillax, I'm perfectly fine!" Marisa announced as she stood up, no worse for the wear. "That did hurt a little bit, though."

Reimu is now less worried and more confused. She knows why Marisa pretended to be hurt, but not where the armor came from. "Marisa, where did you..."

"I took a detour before we met at the rice fields." Marisa casually answered.

Reimu raised her eyebrows. "What detour?"

...

**Gensokyo Police Force head office; Touhou-ri Village**

"Chief Sonozika..." A police constable reported to Kotohime. "We've had a break-in in the armory."

Kotohime looked up from the investigation reports filed during her predecessor's tenure as police chief that she was just going through. "Please tell me that the bazookas and Gatling guns are all still there..." She hoped.

"All of them are still accounted for." The constable replied. "It was a piece of body armor that went missing."

...

**Scarlet Mansion**

"Let's just say the GPF ain't gonna be happy to see me when we get back..." Marisa explained with a shrug.

Reimu rolled her eyes in response.

"In any case," She changed the topic. "the enemy we fought just now - Izayoi Sakuya - is a very tough one, and my attacks just now didn't knock her out. So she might come back any moment now..."

* * *

Got hit by a case of writer's block for this fic (but strangely enough not for _Luna Nova: School For Witches_). So here's a boss preview for this incarnation of Sakuya. Pads not included.

And that's it, I have nothing else to say in the Afterwords this time. So...

"And that, as they say, is that..."

_Afterwords end here..._


	14. Perfectly Elegant Fight

**Scarlet Mansion**

"This must be it..."

Said Reimu as she pointed at a double doors located at the end of the corridor. It is also metallic and painted in a reddish-black palette as opposed to the other doors which were simply made of wood and painted in a normal shade of red.

"There is a massive amount of magic energy coming from behind it." Reimu added. "This must be where the main culprit of the Scarlet Mist is."

"That purple beansprout's master, huh?" Marisa said. "Wonder what kind of selfish jerkass they are to think of doing all this...?"

"That doesn't matter." Reimu said. "This Incident needs to be stopped, and its culprit apprehended."

"I'm sorry, but I can't let you do that."

A voice with a cold, striking tone said from behind Reimu and Marisa.

The two girls quickly turned around, and saw a pair of red eyes belonging to a person they've only fought just now, currently standing in a spot that was moments ago completely empty as they passed by it.

A minute ago, a pair of red eyes is all that Reimu could see of Sakuya. But now with more distance between the two, the enemy's features became apparent. The most notable thing about Sakuya is her silver hair that seemed to gleam like actual silver, which is worn in braids at both sides of her face tied with small black bows at the end. Her outfit appears to be a simple blue blouse and knee-length skirt combo, which is basically a western maid outfit not unlike Yumeko's, only blue. Her hands, which are both holding the same ornate silver knives, hung by her sides.

"I suppose you are the lieutenant of your master?" Reimu directed at Sakuya, as she readied a handful of Ofuda.

"And this mansion's head of security too?" Marisa added. "Though if that was the case, then ya ain't doin' a very good job, since we got this far in the first place..."

"I prefer the term 'loyal servant'. And no, I don't lead this mansion's security detail, though I do assist in defending it from intruders." Sakuya corrected both girls.

"And I suppose you still intend on doing your job?" Reimu said as she readied her gohei and the Ying-Yang Orb.

"We're gonna have to go through ya, anyway." Marisa said as she pulled out her magic wand. "So how 'bout a second round, 'cept this time, we go mano-a-mano?"

Sakuya then raised both her hands, knives at the ready.

"Very well. I accept your challenge..."

Then at a speed faster than the blink of an eye, Sakuya threw all of her knives at the two girls.

There is actually over ten times more knives than what the silver-haired servant was seen holding just a second ago...

Reimu is surprised by the sheer number of knives in the barrage, and how there's so many of them tightly packed together that dodging the barrage is literally impossible.

Marisa quickly pointed her wand forward. "DEFLECT!" Chanting a spell, she fired a short-ranged shock wave that disrupted the trajectory of the knives, causing all of them to fall onto the floor.

Once again, the knives faded out of existence before they can touch the floor. And in the moment they served to distract Reimu and Marisa, so did Sakuya.

"Sheesh! She's gonna be like that demon maid from Makai!" Marisa pointed out as she looked around the hallway for the silver-haired servant. "At least she ain't sadistic."

"Good to know that..." Reimu said. She shuddered at being reminded of Yumeko, whose sadistic torture of her and Marisa still haunts her. Thankfully for the shrine maiden, Sakuya is more of an elegant servant than a sadistic one. "But I most definitely _don't_ want to face the same amount of difficulty we have back then. Maybe we should bring out the Spell Cards..."

"Yeah. I ain't gonna get my ass kicked again." Marisa acknowledged as she reached into her hat.

Or tried to...

Something had knocked the witch's hat off of her head.

"Huh? Where did-" Marisa looked around for her hat, and found it stuck to a section of the wall by a knife. "Damn, she's a sneaky one."

Just as Marisa went to grab her hat, Reimu's intuition went off again, as she unconsciously went and dragged Marisa back, right as Sakuya suddenly popped into existence and slashed across where Marisa's face was a split second ago.

With her ambush attack evaded, Sakuya faded out of existence again.

"Whoa! That was close!" Marisa exclaimed. "Thanks for the save, Rei! A second too late and I'm gonna hate lookin' into a mirror for the rest of my life!"

"Keep your eyes wide open..." Reimu said as she let go of Marisa, and scanned the hallway. "You said it yourself: she can teleport like Yumeko does..."

"Correction: my ability is not teleportation." Sakuya said as she suddenly appeared behind the girls and threw a dozen knives at them.

Reimu and Marisa deflected the knives, then fired as many danmaku at Sakuya as they can. The silver-haired servant faded from existence before the danmaku can hit her.

"It is actually the manipulation of time." Sakuya continued as she reappeared at a different part of the hallway, throwing even more knives at the girls.

Once again, Reimu and Marisa deflected the knives (and dodged some of them) before firing at Sakuya. Again, it did nothing as Sakuya disappeared before the danmaku can reach her.

"It allows me to do an hour's worth of work in the span of a split second." Sakuya added upon reappearing at yet another part of the hallway, throwing an even bigger barrage of knives at the girls.

Reimu and Marisa did the same thing, and got the same result, as Sakuya disappeared for the third time.

But this time, rather than reappearing at another part of the hallway and throwing knives, the silver-haired servant reappeared right behind Marisa and had the witch held in an arm lock before anyone realized it. A knife was held over Marisa's throat.

Reimu gasped upon seeing her friend being held hostage. "Let her go!" She demanded to Sakuya.

"I will." Sakuya answered. "If the two of you promise to leave this mansion and never come back."

"As if we're gonna do that!" Marisa answered defiantly, and gets reminded of her position when Sakuya touched the edge of the knife against her throat.

"Now, do we have a deal?" Sakuya said.

Reimu contemplated the options. Of course she isn't going to give in to Sakuya's demand. The problem being how to save Marisa and/or knock out Sakuya without getting the former's throat sliced.

"I guess there are no negotiations here?" Reimu asked for the obvious.

"Not after you two caused collateral damages to the mansion, especially in your fight against Lady Patchouli." Sakuya pointed out.

Well, Sakuya did have a point. But...

What she just said reminded Reimu of something.

_Collateral damages...Patchouli...Hm..._ The shrine maiden thought.

Then it all came to her...

"I think I'm going to have to take it back, Marisa..." Reimu said.

Marisa have no idea what Reimu was talking about. "Take back what?"

Reimu didn't answer. She just summoned the Ying-Yang Orb and launched it out...toward Marisa.

In the moment the Orb is launched, Marisa instantly figured out what Reimu is planning. "Wait a sec! Ya gonna literally go right through-"

Sakuya also figured out what is going on, but it was too late for her as the Ying-Yang Orb slammed into Marisa, sending both hostage and hostage taker flying backwards into a wall with enough force to smash a crater in it.

Marisa collapsed into a heap on the floor soon after.

With Marisa out of the way, Reimu quickly fired more danmaku at the currently dazed Sakuya, then slammed the Ying-Yang Orb into her face for good measure.

Amazingly, that still didn't knock out Sakuya, as she simply dropped onto the floor on her feet. Though while taking a divine power-infused cannonball to the face didn't knock her out, the silver-haired servant is noticeably even more dazed than earlier, as she barely stood on her feet for a second before collapsing on her knees.

"Ouch, that's gotta hurt..." Marisa, still on the floor, quipped. "Speaking of which...godsdamn, did that hurt for me!"

Reimu rolled her eyes. Marisa's _gaijin_ mentality never ceases to amaze.

Reimu then turned her attention back to Sakuya.

All she could see Sakuya doing is the silver-haired servant snapping her fingers before she disappeared into thin air.

"Time manipulation...?" Reimu thought. "How are we going to be able to defeat that ability?"

Marisa got up and cast a healing spell on herself, then called her still-hovering broom over. "I dunno. Ya tell me..." She responded as she climbed onto her broom.

At that moment, Reimu's intuition went off again, as she turned around and raised her gohei up, just in time to block an attempted backstab by Sakuya.

Marisa raised her wand and cast a spell at Sakuya, only for the silver-haired servant to disappear with a snap of her fingers before the spell can reach her.

"Jeez! How are we gonna stop her from stoppin' time and zippin' around?!" Marisa complained. "If only there was a weakness we can exploit!"

Reimu, however, did notice something.

Every instances of Sakuya disappearing into thin air is preceded by the sound of a finger snap. And Reimu did notice Sakuya snapping the fingers of her left hand just now before she disappeared again.

"If only..." She muttered.

"'If only' what?" Marisa asked for clarification.

Before Marisa could receive an answer, Reimu's intuition went off once again as she went and shove Marisa aside, then delivered a high-kick at that direction, hitting Sakuya in her face at the precise moment she reappeared.

Reimu then closed in on Sakuya, who noticed her in time to swing her knife-wielding right hand at the shrine maiden. Reimu caught the knife-wielding right hand with both her hands, and put as much strength as she can muster in her arms to stop the knife from getting any closer to her. It was a struggle, but luckily for Reimu, Sakuya didn't have enhanced strength levels, so she too struggled to break through her defense despite using both arms to push on the knife.

As soon as she noticed Sakuya releasing the grip of her left hand on the knife, Reimu released her right hand and shot it toward Sakuya's left, holding her fingers in place and preventing her from snapping her fingers.

"Now, Marisa!" Reimu shouted at Marisa. "Hurry up!" She added as she felt the grip of her left hand starting to slip.

Marisa quickly figured out what Reimu has planned. "This better work, ya sweet-toothed fat girl!" As she said that, the witch pulled a Spell Card out of the pocket of her coat. "Alright, then. Brace yourself, Rei!"

Sakuya watched as Marisa prepared her Spell Card. She knew full well what the Spell Card is going to do, and tried to break free.

Unfortunately for Sakuya, the Spell Card is created already ready for casting the instant its owner poured magic energy into it. And that's exactly what Marisa did, too late for Sakuya to do anything about.

"_**Comet: [Blazing Star]**_"

A bright white ball of light surrounded Marisa as she charged toward Sakuya at a high speed, giving the impression of a comet, the namesake of the Spell Card.

"Dodge this, bitch!" Marisa taunted as she collided with Sakuya, plowing across the hallway with Sakuya caught right in the middle of the attack.

The Spell Card ended the moment Marisa and Sakuya crashed into the metallic double doors with enough force to blow them right off their hinges and even severely deform them as they along with Sakuya are sent flying across the room they separated from the hallway.

"Marisa?" Reimu called out as she entered the room, and find Marisa splayed on the floor.

"Woohoo! Now that is what I'd call a dynamic entry!" Marisa quipped as she quickly got back up, unscathed aside from the damages done to her outfit. "Though remind me to fix my clothes after this is all over..."

Reimu is glad that Marisa is alright. But there is something more pressing she wanted to address first... Reimu approached Marisa and knelt down next to her.

Marisa turned to see Reimu staring her in the face. "What? Something's on my fa-"

She is quickly interrupted when Reimu grabbed her by her neck.

"What was it that you just said about me? A 'sweet-toothed _fat_ girl'?" The shrine maiden interrogated viciously.

"I'm so sorry..." Marisa plead for mercy. In her gleefulness to take down Sakuya with a Spell Card, she has completely forgotten about her red-white friend's berserk button.

The minor scuffle came to a halt when both girls noticed Sakuya standing back up...only to immediately collapse again as she went out cold for real.

"Jeez, that is one tough bitch..." Marisa hung a lamp in regards to Sakuya's resilience. "Can't imagine how tough her boss's gonna-"

**"What fool dares awaken me, the great Remilia?!"**

* * *

And there goes Sakuya...

To be honest, I actually nerfed Sakuya a bit by giving her an exploitable weakness in that she needs to snap her fingers in order to stop time. Also, Sakuya didn't do her "surround enemy with knives from all directions" thing here because in this universe, Spell Cards are such a recent invention that only their inventors are using them, and that attack is just impossible to defeat if it isn't a Spell Card.

Yes, Remilia's "What fool dares awaken me" speech is a reference. See if you can find out where I got it from.

"And that, as they say, is that..."

_Afterwords end here._


	15. Lost Daughter of Vlad Tepes

**Mistress's Room; Scarlet Mansion**

**"What fool dares awaken me, the great Remilia?!"**

Reimu and Marisa froze when a new voice spoke, loudly, in a demanding manner. They then looked around for where the voice may have come from.

In the process of doing so, they find themselves to be in a large, dimly lit room with a gothic throne in the middle of it, and next to the throne is a small tea table. Hung high in the wall behind the throne is a large stained glass window depicting a blood red full moon.

The two girls continued to scan the room for any signs of whoever the voice belonged to, with no avail.

**"I assume it was you two mortals who so rudely woke me from my slumber?"** Said the voice again.

This time, the voice can easily be pinpointed as having come from the gothic throne in the middle of the room. Reimu and Marisa, with their weapons in hand, slowly turned toward it.

They find the throne that, just a few seconds ago had been vacant, is now occupied by what looked like a young lady in a blood red dress and mob cap. The color of her hair is difficult to make out due to the red hue cast by the Scarlet Mist shining through the stained glass window, but the pair of bat-like wings sprouting from her back instantly identifies her as not human.

**"I am Remilia Scarlet, lost daughter of Vlad Tepes the Impaler, and mistress of this mansion."** The young(-looking) lady introduced herself with a foreign accent thick enough to make any listeners cringe. **"For what reason have you come here, mortals?"** She added with an evil-looking grin.

Reimu kept her gohei pointed at the now-named Remilia. "The Scarlet Mist covering Gensokyo right now. You masterminded it, right?"

"By the way, sorry 'bout your house...and your maid." Marisa said, as she too pointed her magic wand at Remilia. "So, the Scarlet Mist...your doing?"

Remilia glanced at Sakuya who laid unconscious on the floor, then back at Reimu and Marisa before letting out a chuckle that is meant to sound intimidating. **"Why, yes, of course..."**

"Why didja do that?" Marisa joined in on the interrogation. "'Cause ya don't wanna get sunburn?"

Remilia let out an evil laugh this time. **"Indeed, witch. My kind grows weak in sunlight. Which is why I had the Scarlet Mist summoned so I can-"**

"Actually, I was just jokin' when I brought up the 'sunlight' thing." Marisa interrupted. "Also, weak against sunlight? Does that mean you're a freakin' _vampire_?"

Remilia paused a bit due to the interruption. If Reimu or Marisa paid close attention, they would've noticed Remilia raising her eyebrows ever so slightly.

**"Indeed." **Remilia proudly answered. **"As I was saying, I summoned the Scarlet Mist so the sun may never shine its rays on this land, and then I shall lay claim to-"**

"Yeah, well, slight problem with that." Marisa interrupted again. "We live in this land, and we ain't gonna just hand it over to ya."

While Marisa is correct in her statement, she pointed it out in such a way that made Reimu cringe.

Apparently, Remilia, while retaining her evil grin, _did_ also cringe at the witch's statement going by how she rolled her eyes for all but a second before recovering herself. **"In that case, I shall des-"**

"Destroy us two before ya can 'lay claim' to Gensokyo." Marisa interrupted for the third time. "Yeah, yeah. Reimu and I get that a lot. Get to the point already, drama queen!"

That third interruption was what made Remilia break character, as her evil grin faded away and she face-palmed in annoyance.

Despite the tense moment and facing an intimidating villain who could be very powerful, Reimu had to suppress the urge to chortle at the sight of Remilia getting annoyed by Marisa's antics.

The annoyed vampire stood up from her throne. **"Foolish mortals..."** She declared, as magic energy with the same blood red hue as the Scarlet Mist suddenly gathered on her right hand, forming into a large spear that is longer than she is tall. **"I shall destroy you, then subjugate the inhabitants of this land! The stronger ones shall kneel before me, while the weaker ones..."** Remilia then started twirling her spear as a show of force and intimidation. **"The weaker ones shall feed me with their bl-"**

Remilia's spiel is promptly interrupted when she accidentally hit herself on the side of her head with the shaft of her spear, causing her to jerk her face to the left.

Reimu once again suppressed the urge to chortle at the sight. Marisa, on the other hand, burst out laughing. "Oh, this feels like a scene from right out of _Thor: Ragnarok_!"

Remilia quickly recovered, her expression indicating her fury about the embarrassing moment just now.

"Fine!" Remilia said, having decided to drop her thick foreign accent and melodramatic vocabulary. "If it's a fight you're looking for, then so be it!"

"I knew her accent is way too thick to not be an act..." Reimu remarked under her breath.

...

**Touhou-ri Village**

"What is going on?"

"It appears that the mist has just become thicker!"

"What is going to happen?!"

"Can the Hakurei shrine maiden even handle it?!"

The villagers, who are already worried because of the Scarlet Mist, started to panic when the Mist suddenly became an even deeper shade of red. The red hue cast by the Mist on everything became so deep in shade that nearly all of the light from the sun is blocked out by it.

Chaos ensued as the villager began running about, unsure of what to do in the current situation.

...

**Mistress's Room; Scarlet Mansion**

Reimu and Marisa both took a step back when they saw Remilia's spear starting to radiate an aura so bright that the red in its hue can be seen even despite the Scarlet Mist suddenly becoming thick enough to block out the sun near completely.

"I think she just got pissed!" Marisa exclaimed.

"Perhaps you shouldn't have interrupted her, then laughed at her..." Reimu pointed out as she summoned forth the Ying-Yang Orb in preparation for a fight.

"It ain't my fault that she nailed herself in the head while tryin' to look badass." Marisa argued. "'Sides, ya laughed at her too, didn't cha?"

The two girls then turned their attention back on Remilia, who is now radiating the same red aura as her spear.

"_En Garde_!"

* * *

Yeehaw! I'm glad that I'm finally to post another update after two months of hiatus!

For those of you who don't follow the YMC Tumblr, the hiatus in the past two months is due to me getting really busy with stuff IRL. No Writer's Block are involved, its just that the event that got me busy came so sudden I don't even have time to post this chapter before I had to start dedicating my time to deal with it. And now that it's over it, updates to all of my stories will resume as normal until the next period of hiatus.

Yeah, I admit this chapter is a bit disappointingly short. That's because I just wanted to post it ASAP so as to tell you guys that I haven't decided to make an unannounced retirement. Believe me, I won't stop writing until I finish the YMC franchise as a whole (or until I die IRL).

"And that, as they say, is that..."

_Afterwords end here._

IMPORTANT NOTICE: remember that time from half a year ago when I said I had to postpone updates to the Fanfiction Dot Net version of the stories due to an outdated DNS blocking my access to the site in general? Yeah, well, I think it's happening again. Had a new wifi router installed in the house two days ago, and that access blockage happened. I had to get a VPN network just to be able to post this chapter. Another problem: the VPN network is a three day trial run, and it expires tomorrow. Which meant that I may have to postpone updates to the FF Dot Net version of all my stories indefinitely AGAIN. I'm terribly sorry for the unforeseen circumstances...


	16. Ode to the Undead Queen

**Mistress's Room; Scarlet Mansion**

"_En garde_!"

Remilia let out a battle cry before lunging toward Reimu and Marisa with her aura-infused spear raised.

Reimu and Marisa dodged the attack simply by moving out of the way, resulting in Remilia continuing on her trajectory uncontrollably until she impacted the section of wall next to the double doors hard enough to form a crater on it.

"Jeez, why do spear users have to do that all the time?" Marisa wondered out loud.

Remilia didn't even need to recover from the impact, as she quickly launched herself out of the crater toward the duo once again.

Reimu and Marisa fired danmaku at Remilia, to absolutely no effect despite obviously scoring several direct hits. They then dodged her lunge in the exact same way.

Once again, the vampire mistress continued on her trajectory as her intended target dodged her attack. But this time, she is able to put herself to a stop before impacting another wall.

"I will make you _pay_ for embarrassing me!" Remilia declared as she spun her spear again as an act of intimidation, this time managing to not hit her head with its shaft. "In _your blood_!"

"Just how big is your ego, for you to blame _us_ for _your_ mistake?" Reimu pointed out.

"Big enough that there ain't no point in arguing with her about it." Marisa pointed out for Reimu.

Remilia then threw her spear at Reimu, with enough force that a shockwave is produced just from it leaving the vampire's grip.

Reimu raised her gohei to block the thrown spear. But while it does manage to prevent the spear from impaling her, the spear was thrown with such strength that it pushed the shrine maiden along in its trajectory, and continued flying in its path until it smashed a large hole right through the section of wall under the stained glass window.

...

The impact and the sound of marble exploding into tiny pieces disoriented Reimu enough that all she could hear is ringing in her ears as she flew out of the Scarlet Mansion through the hole along with Remilia's spear. She could hear Marisa calling out to her, but the witch's words could not be identified due to the ringing.

Remilia then closed the distance between her and Reimu in the blink of an eye, reclaiming her spear as she then tried to slash at Reimu with it.

Reimu, despite the disorientation, is able to notice the incoming attack and raise her gohei in time to intercept the slash.

There was an explosion of magic energy as the sharp end of Remilia's spear made contact with Reimu's gohei...

...

**Hakurei Shrine**

Genji and Konngara were both sitting on the shrine's roof when they noticed an explosion of magic energy from off the distance.

"That energy..." Genji said worriedly. "Reimu is in danger..."

"Do not worry." Konngara reassured as she took a sip from her sake bowl. "Her time has not yet come. She will prevail in her mission."

Genji glanced at the Astral Knight. "How are you so sure?"

Konngara set her sake bowl down. "For she took with her a spirit of determination that will carry her through all challenges."

"But all of the previous Hakurei shrine maidens did." Genji pointed out.

Konngara remained silent for a few seconds. Then she responded, "That, and a regalia of the Hakurei clan she took with her..."

Genji was about to ask what Konngara meant by "regalia" when he realized what she meant by it. "Though I wish she realizes that she will have to overcome the embarrassment she will feel about using it..." He spoke.

At that moment, Ellen wandered absentmindedly into the shrine grounds, seemingly looking for something.

"Hello~" Ellen greeted the two ancient beings, not realizing who they really are. "Have you two seen Miss Yumemi anywhere? She asked for a package and I was going to give it to her..."

...

**Scarlet Mansion**

There was an explosion of magic energy as the sharp end of Remilia's spear made contact with Reimu's gohei...

And the next thing Reimu knows, she is holding the two halves of the gohei in both of her hands.

Reimu was at shock. She had just lost one of her two weapons...

"Anything else you might want to add, human?" Remilia taunted as she hovered a short distance in front of Reimu.

Reimu, with unexpressed fury, put the broken gohei away. "This...!" She answered the taunt as she summoned the Ying-Yang Orb and launched it toward Remilia.

Remilia easily dodged the incoming projectile by side-stepping it, and then used the split second to close the distance with Reimu again. The vampire un-summoned her spear within that split second before putting a crushing grip on both of Reimu's arms.

"I congratulate you and your friend for coming this far, human." Remilia, tightening her inhumanly strong grip on Reimu, told her. "But there is no way you can possibly win against a noble vampire like me..."

Not responding to that spiel, Reimu kept her glare on Remilia as the Ying-Yang Orb made its return trip toward its owner.

Unfortunately for Reimu, Remilia did notice the Ying-Yang Orb coming back. Remilia turned around without releasing her strong grip on Reimu, putting the shrine maiden between herself and the Ying-Yang Orb.

The Orb impacted Reimu in her back with a loud whack. Although danmaku magic meant that the Orb cannot cause physical injuries to anybody (inanimate objects are an entirely different matter), it still knocked the air out of Reimu's lungs, along with the pain in her back which caused her to become unable to focus on anything.

"Admit it. Nothing can stop me from ruling over this land as its master!" Remilia declared. "Because it is my destiny, and I have seen it!"

Reimu, in an attempt to defy Remilia, attempted to knee her in the abdomen.

Remilia briefly looked down at Reimu's knee in response to the attack, then back at the shrine maiden with a smug look on her face.

The vampire promptly returned the favor, kneeing Reimu in the abdomen so hard that she became overcome by pain, and would've plummeted from the air if it wasn't for Remilia's strong grip on her.

"Let 'er go, ya pale-skinned bloodsucker!" Marisa shouted at Remilia, as she came flying on her broomstick. The witch refrained from firing any shots at Remilia due to Reimu being used as a body shield.

Remilia simply released the grip of her right hand from Reimu, re-summoned her spear into it, and then threw the spear at Marisa, again with enough force that a shockwave is produced just from it leaving her hand.

The thrown spear moved way faster than any danmaku, and is so fast that Marisa couldn't dodge it, so she quickly raised a shield spell in an attempt to block it. However, while the shield spell saved Marisa from being impaled, the spear hit with so much force that she is still blown off of her flying broomstick and back through the hole in the mansion that she just came out of.

Reimu couldn't even call out to her friend due to the pain from the earlier attacks overwhelming her ability to respond.

"Do you want to know what happened to those who fought me in the past?" Remilia taunted, as she used one hand to move the collar of Reimu's _haori_ jacket away from her neck, and the other to keep the shrine maiden secured in her grip.

Despite the overwhelming pain, Reimu can still see enough with her eyes to notice the gleam in Remilia's eyes, as well as the fact that the vampire is bearing her fangs.

Reimu dreaded what is coming.

"They've all become my meals... or in Sakuya's case, my servant." Remilia declared. "Now, which one of the two will you choose? Be my meal? Or survive and be my servant?"

"Go...to...Makai..." Reimu struggled to answer.

Remilia smirked upon hearing that. "Then so be it..."

With that said, the vampire then brought her sharp fangs upon the shrine maiden's exposed neck...

* * *

Cliffhanger! I don't usually do that...

And well, Reimu and Marisa's fight against Remilia went downhill really quickly. Even if she's exaggerating about things in the previous chapter, she still turned out to be too much for the Incident resolvers to handle, and now they are in serious need of a miracle. If only they have Sanae with them at the moment...

So how is Reimu going to get herself out of this sticky and soon-to-be-bloody moment? That'd have to wait until the next chapter, so stay tuned to find out!

"And that, as they say, is that..."

_Afterwords end here._

**NOTE: So having a vacation in another country where FF Dot Net isn't banned meant that I can use the opportunity to post chapters that I've posted to AO3 but not here...**


	17. Guardians of the Sanctuary

**Mistress's Room; Scarlet Mansion**

Marisa knew that her blind charge toward Remilia is not going to end well for her. But she did it anyway out of desperation, and paid for it with her dignity.

Being thrown a long distance away by a very hard-hitting attack and then crashing into a near indestructible marble wall hard enough to form a crater on it definitely hurts more than a lot, especially for a human like her. It was only thanks to a combination of inertial dampening magic and healing magic that she hasn't been permanently crippled by that attack.

"Yeah, sure, as if goin' all Rambo on a vampire is gonna work! Nice job, Marisa..." The witch scolded herself for that stunt as she pushed herself out of the crater in the marble wall. "What an a-hole you are for even thinkin' of that..."

Remembering why she did that blind charge earlier, Marisa quickly made her way toward the hole in the wall that Remilia made even earlier.

She watched as Remilia had Reimu at her mercy, totally helpless to do anything.

"Now what the heck can I do?" Marisa pondered the two options she has. "Chargin' at her ain't gonna work. Shootin' her might get Reimu shot instead, especially with Spell Cards." The witch then became so frustrated by her lack of options that she started tearing at her own hair. "C'mon, ya a-hole! Is there anythin' that ya can do abo- Wait a sec... 'a-hole'?"

She then smiled as a third option materialized in her mind, having just been inspired by what she just said to herself.

"Hope ya don't mind me stealin' your grooves, Peter Quill..." Saying that, Marisa then summoned her flying broomstick over, and hopped onto it...

...

**Outside the Scarlet Mansion**

"Then so be it..."

With that said, Remilia brought her mouth closer to Reimu, preparing to puncture the skin of the shrine maiden's exposed neck with her sharp fangs.

Reimu closed her eyes in dread. Is this how she is going to die? Is this how the Hakurei bloodline is going to end once and for all? She could feel Remilia's fangs touching the skin on her neck.

The fangs never went any further than that.

Reimu is glad that something suddenly made Remilia pause. But she didn't know what did. That is, until she heard a familiar voice... singing?

"Ooh-oo child~

Things are gonna get easier~

Ooh-oo child~

Things'll get brighter~

Ooh-oo child~

Things are gonna get easier~

Ooh-oo child~

Things'll get brighter~"

As Remilia moved her fanged mouth away from Reimu's neck, the shrine maiden opened her eyes to find the vampire staring, with utmost confusion, at _something_.

Reimu moved her head slightly to catch a glimpse of what might have confused Remilia so much as to make her stop literally just a split second away from delivering a killing blow.

Marisa is... dancing... on her flying broomstick. Yes, _dancing_, while singing something. The flying broomstick automatically adjusted its position with each step Marisa make, so that she always have something to step on during her dancing.

Remilia became so flabbergasted by the audacious sight that she unconsciously released the grip of one of her hands on Reimu, allowing the shrine maiden to dangle at her side.

"What are you doing?" The vampire asked out of confusion.

"Dance off, bro. You and me." Marisa briefly stopped her singing to answer, then continued without missing a beat.

Remilia continued to hover right where she is, trying to make sense of what Marisa is doing. Meanwhile, Reimu is equally confused by the same thing, but is glad that it brought her time to come up with a plan.

Unfortunately for Reimu, there are only two options available for her. One option is summoning the Ying-Yang Orb and use it to knock Remilia senseless, which wouldn't work given how the vampire was able to nonchalantly dodge it just a minute ago. The other option is... well, very embarrassing for Reimu. But what is embarrassment when compared to the continued existence of the Hakurei bloodline and the lives of everyone in Gensokyo?

With what is at stake, Reimu decided that she'd rather be embarrassed than not doing the right thing.

And so having made up her mind, Reimu started shaking her one free hand, in an attempt to get the thing she wanted to fall out of her sleeve.

At the same time, Remilia, unaware of what Reimu is doing, continued to stare at Marisa with utter confusion for a few more seconds before regaining her composure. "What. Are. You. DOING?!" She shouted at the witch.

"I'm distracting ya, big turd blossom!" Marisa stopped her singing altogether and dropped the bombshell to Remilia. "By the way, it worked for a guy called Star Lord, so..."

Remilia widened her eyes upon realizing what had just happened, as she quickly turned her attention back onto Reimu.

The vampire has just enough time to see the tip of a paper umbrella before it smacked itself into her chin.

The impact caused Remilia to jerk her head back, and release her grip on Reimu altogether, causing the shrine maiden to start to plummet away from her.

_That actually worked._ Reimu thought as she plummeted while holding the same paper umbrella she found in the Hakurei Shrine storage shed earlier today. _Thank the gods that Marisa did what she just did, however nonsensical it may be... Never mind that!_

Dismissing her thoughts, Reimu grabbed the paper umbrella with both of her hands, then held it close to her body and closed her eyes.

Up above, Remilia shook her head to recover from Reimu's surprise attack before turning her attention on Marisa. "How audacious of you to weaponize insanity and make it work..." She said, impressed by the stunt just now.

Marisa stood on her flying broomstick. "Ya can thank James Gunn for that!" She proudly said.

As Remilia was to make her response, a jade-colored pillar of light suddenly shot down from the sky, penetrating the Scarlet Mist that enveloped it, and went past her.

Marisa smiled, for she knew exactly what that was. "Ya might wanna check _that_ out." She said smugly as she pointed at the bottom of the pillar of light.

That was when the pillar of light disappeared. A second later, something flew up from below and hit Remilia with as much force as her spear when it was thrown, knocking her off balance as she gets caught by surprise.

That "something" turned out to be Reimu. But instead of a crisp white _haori_ jacket and red _hakama_ skirt, she is now sporting the same frilly "magical girl" outfit that she briefly had earlier in the day before the Scarlet Mist appeared. The paper umbrella has also transformed into a gohei that is longer than Reimu is tall, with a _haraegushi_ that is just as long.

"Before you say anything, Marisa," Reimu positioned herself near the witch. "it was either this or getting killed. And I'd rather have it be the former."

"Less talk, more ass-kickin'!" Marisa declared, before pointing a finger at Remilia. "And there's one waitin' to be kicked!"

Reimu turned back toward Remilia, and spun her new polearm-length gohei in a windmill-like way as to intimidate the vampire (though Reimu actually don't know how to do that, and have no idea how she just did).

Remilia re-summoned her spear. "Just what is in this land that made you want to risk your life defending it?" She interrogated.

Reimu stopped spinning her gohei and held it out in front of her. The gohei formed a perfectly symmetrical line dividing the left and right half of her body.

"Because this is my home, and it is also my duty as its defender, as well as the Hakurei Shrine Maiden to vanquish all evil forces that threaten it and its inhabitants." Reimu declared, then blinked for a bit as she realized that she isn't _that dramatic_, and concluded that the gohei itself is putting the words in her mouth. "The Sacred Hakurei Gohei will speak its judgement upon you!"

Marisa, with her wand out, joined Reimu. "And she ain't deliverin' said judgement without me!"

Reimu glanced at Marisa in response to hearing that. "Do you have to get involved in _everything_?" She asked in a deadpan manner.

"I'm already involved in this just by bein' here. So yeah?" Marisa answered with a shrug.

Just as Reimu is about to speak another sentence, her head jerked back toward Remilia's direction, just in time to see the vampire having thrown her spear again.

Rather than assuming a defensive stance or attempting to block the thrown spear, Reimu instead swung her new gohei like a bat, and swatted the spear away as though it was just a ball.

Remilia is shocked by what she just saw. She called her spear back to her grasped and repeated the same attack several times, all with the same results. The same attack that nearly decimated Reimu the first time it was used is now ineffective against her.

"Such a massive increase in power...! How is that even possible?!" The vampire exclaimed.

Marisa spun her magic wand as an act of intimidation. "'Cause we're the Guardians of the Sanctuary!"

If the situation wasn't so dire, Reimu would've given Marisa a glare. Nevertheless, what the witch said works so well for the moment that the shrine maiden decided to go along with it. "And you picked the wrong sanctuary to try to conquer!"

After her declaration to Remilia, Reimu charged toward the vampire with her new gohei to bear.

Remilia responded by mirroring what Reimu is doing, charging toward the shrine maiden with her spear to bear.

When the two collided and clashed their weapons, a massive shockwave was produced that could be seen all the way from the human villages.

The last time Reimu and Remilia clashed their weapons, the two's power levels are so far apart that it instantly ended in a no-holds-barred fight in Remilia's favor. This time, however, Reimu empowered by the Sacred Hakurei Gohei evened out the power levels so that she can hold back Remilia's attempts to push against her.

Seeing that Reimu isn't budging, Remilia opted to "play dirty" for a bit by hitting Reimu with a headbutt...which did absolutely nothing as Reimu didn't even blink, much less flinch in reaction to it.

"I wasn't expecting that either..." Reimu quipped, before retaliating with her own headbutt, which hit so hard that it dazed Remilia for a brief moment. That brief moment caused Remilia to lose the clash right away, as she gets shoved back by Reimu, who then follows up with a kick to the vampire's abdomen, sending her tumbling a distance away like a ball getting kicked.

Remilia regained her balance quickly. But before she can continue attacking, she found herself getting pelted by a barrage of danmaku.

"Smile, ya daughter of a bas-" Marisa yelled hammily as she fired danmaku non-stop with her wand at the vampire.

As the barrage of danmaku are doing nothing to Remilia, she simply retaliated by throwing her spear at Marisa.

However, the spear didn't even get to travel half the distance before Reimu intercepted and swatted it away at a high speed. Before Remilia can summon the spear back to her, Reimu swung the _haraegushi_ of her gohei out like a whip at the vampire, landing a direct hit and causing her to reel back.

Remilia glanced at her left wing where the _haraegushi_ whiplash hit, finding a gleaming white gash travelling diagonally across it. The gash healed thanks to her regenerative ability as a vampire, but it did so at a slower pace than usual due to the attack being imbued by holy or divine magic.

The vampire placed her attention back on the battle at hand as she noticed Marisa firing more danmaku at her.

Reimu reinforced Marisa's danmaku barrage by summoning forth the Ying-Yang Orb and then throwing it into the mix by using the gohei to swat it toward Remilia.

Enhanced by the powers of the Sacred Hakurei Gohei, the Ying-Yang Orb emitted a jade-colored aura and left a trail of magic particles of the same color in its wake as it traveled toward Remilia at quadruple its usual speed. At this speed, the Ying-Yang Orb is too fast for Remilia to react to in any meaningful way even with her vampiric super speed.

Remilia took a direct hit from the Orb, which hit so hard that it'd have pulverized every bone in her body if it wasn't danmaku magic. That said, it still hurts a lot even for a vampire, and Remilia was left clutching her body because of the pain.

"How is this even possible?!" The vampire exclaimed. "I am the lost daughter of Vlad Tepes, the most powerful vampire ever existed! I command the darkness itself, and all those shrouded within it! Nothing should have been able to even hurt me!"

Reimu interrupted Remilia's rant by suddenly appearing right in front of her. The shrine maiden swung her gohei at the vampire, who attempted to parry the attack with her spear, only to have it be snapped in half by the more powerful holy weapon.

"Just one reason..." Reimu quipped as she raised her gohei up in preparation for the finishing blow. "Welcome to Gensokyo!"

She then brought her gohei down upon Remilia's head, and delivered a mighty blow...

* * *

Yeah, yeah. I admit the first half of this chapter is just an excuse to make a reference to the famous "dance-off to save the universe" scene from _Guardians of the Galaxy_, which even had the dancer garner an identical reaction from the intended audience. Even using the song "_Ooh Child_", just to hammer in the reference even further.

Either way, I guess that wraps up the EoSD arc. Next chapter will be the epilogue to the arc before we move on to the PCB arc.

But wait! What about Flandre? For that, I hate to say this: Flandre will not be fighting Reimu and Marisa, because with how much I have to raise Reimu's power level just to be able to beat this version of Remilia, this version of Flandre will be absolutely impossible to beat if she were stronger than Remilia. However, I do have a non-violent plan for her, so stay tuned for the next chapter to find out!

"And that, as they say, is that..."

_Afterwords end here._

**NOTE: this is the last chapter of _Seasonal Fantasy_ I can post in FF Dot Net before my four-day vacation ends and I go back to my home country where I won't be able to access the site again for a long time...**


	18. Embodiment of Scarlet Devil

**Well, it's been a long, long time since I last updated anything here on Fanfiction Dot Net. No thanks to the dumb government censorship that was made to please some lazy helicopter moms who thought we have porn here...**

**Many of the chapters after this one were first posted on AO3. As such, their Afterwords reflect my state of mind and perhaps whatever real world event is going on at the time of original posting.**

* * *

**Hakurei Shrine**

"Well, t'was a shame that the Spell Cards didn't see much use."

"At least we did see how effective they were when we used them."

Mid-noon, one day after Remilia Scarlet was defeated and the Scarlet Mist dispelled, Reimu and Marisa met up at the shrine, discussing about the Spell Cards that they used to help them beat their enemies and resolve the Incident.

"So, whaddya think?" Marisa asked Reimu. "Should we stick with Spell Cards in the future, or not?"

Reimu touched her chin and thought about it. "Maybe if we can make them easier to activate? Otherwise, we might have no chance to use them in particularly intense fights." She then glanced at the Sacred Hakurei Gohei (in its parasol form) which she set down on top of the donation box. "But even then, they seem outclassed by _this_..."

"Good point." Marisa said. "Ain't got no use for a weapon ya can't deploy quickly enough."

The two girls' meeting is interrupted when they heard footsteps coming from the direction of the _torii_ gate.

"A visitor?" Reimu wondered. She turned toward the _torii_ gate to see who it was.

It was Remilia Scarlet, with a smug expression on her face, proudly making her way across the shrine grounds while Sakuya stood by her side, carrying a parasol to give her shade from the sun.

"Good day, Guardians of the Sanctuary." The vampire mistress greeted. "Greetings from the House of Scarlet."

Reimu and Marisa both rolled their eyes at the visitor.

"The Makai are ya doin' here?" Marisa asked.

"Is it about the Scarlet Mist from yesterday?" Reimu asked as well.

"Indeed..." Remilia answered smugly, using the same melodramatic tone she used during her pre-battle spiel from the previous day, sans the thick foreign accent. "The Mist, and my plans to take over this land you call Gensokyo, are all an act, part of an elaborate plan of mine to gain your attention, so I can..." She paused. Apparently, she came up with the answer on the fly, but didn't think about the last part thoroughly.

Remilia's sentence hung unfinished for ten full seconds, as she struggled to find a proper way to finish her sentence melodramatically.

"So ya can what? Drink our blood?" Marisa interrupted Remilia's train of thought sarcastically.

If Remilia wasn't a vampire, she would've blushed out of embarrassment right there. "I-in any case, my appearing to want to kill you was because of me getting too dramatic with my act. That is very uncouth for a noblewoman such as me. I do apologize for tha-"

The vampire mistress's speech is interrupted when a piece of cloth suddenly appeared out of nowhere and stuffed itself into her mouth.

The suddenness of the interruption and how it happened is so amusing that both Reimu and Marisa chortled at the sight of it. Even Sakuya had to resist the urge to giggle at it.

Remilia, on the other hand, is annoyed by it, as she pulled the cloth out of her mouth. "Who did that?" She asked in an annoyed tone.

"My guess is a certain poltergeist livin' with Reimu here..." Marisa answered.

"She is, however, an annoyance to me..." Reimu added. She then turned to an empty patch of the ground. "Come out now, Kana..."

As the shrine maiden said that, the poltergeist in question materialized out of thin air, her intangible form hovering an inch above the ground.

**Not-So-Imaginary Spookiness**

**Kana Anaberal**

"I don't know much about vampire behavior." Kana complained as she crossed her arms. "But one thing I do know about them is that they like to be melodramatic, which annoys me."

"Not as annoying as all the pranks you played on me." Reimu countered.

Remilia passed the cloth to Sakuya, who disposed of it with the literal snap of a finger (time-stopping is presumably involved). "Poltergeist, hm? I have to say, I have never seen one for myself, though I have heard about them from Patchouli..."

Kana shushed. "Whatever. You caused that Scarlet Mist from yesterday, did you? I hope you won't cause another Incident again, unless you want to be beaten up by Reimu and Marisa again..."

With that said, the poltergeist disappeared into thin air.

"You were right..." Remilia informed Reimu with an eyeroll. "She _is_ annoying..."

"Ain't usually so much, though." Marisa pointed out. "Must be the Scarlet Mist makin' her feelin' really cranky."

Remilia then cleared her throat. "Anyway, as I was saying, I apologize for how I tried too hard to be dramatic yesterday. That gave the two of you a very bad first impression of me..."

Reimu and Marisa collectively rolled their eyes again at that statement.

"So lemme get this straight..." Marisa said as she took her hat off. "Ya just showed up in Gensokyo out of the blue yesterday, and then caused that godsdamned Scarlet Mist, not because ya wanna take over Gensokyo, but because ya just wanna _meet us_?!"

"The attempted bloodsucking was an unnecessary improvisation on my part," Remilia clarified. "but yes, for it was all destined by fate which I manipulated-"

"Pardon my interruption, and forgive me if I sounded rude, mistress..." Sakuya interrupted. "But you are just afraid of admitting that the Guardians of the Sanctuary have beaten you in battle."

Remilia was not amused by the interruption. One by her loyal servant, no less. "Have you been hanging out with her lately, Sakuya?"

"If you are referring to Lady Patchouli, then yes." Sakuya informed.

At that moment, the maid suddenly shot her hand out to her left, catching a piece of paper that was sent flying here by magic.

"Speaking of Lady Patchouli, she said she will not be able to join us for this visit today..." Sakuya then read from the paper.

Remilia raised her eyebrows upon hearing that. "Why? Did she have some urgent matters to tend to?"

"Urgent enough that she requests our return to the mansion right now." Sakuya continued reading from the paper. "The Little Sister Alert has just been tripped. Also, there is something the assistant added to the letter independently of Lady Patchouli..."

...

**Scarlet Mansion**

All the mansion's Fairy Maids darted straight for the nearest door or window they can find as another explosion erupted from the basement.

"I knew the transportation of the mansion across the world would cause those wards to deteriorate..." Patchouli mumbled as she arrived at the scene of the explosion. "I should get to replacing them..."

At that moment, yet another explosion erupted from the basement. This one is followed by something, or rather, _someone_ flying out of the hole made in the wall.

"Good day to you, Flandre..." Patchouli, with a deadpan tone, greeted the person who came out of the hole. "What would you like to do today?"

**Little Mistress of Mass Destruction**

**Flandre Scarlet**

"I want to _play_~!" The person, Flandre, said cheerfully and maniacally. "And I want _you_ to play with me, Pache~!"

"Very well..." Patchouli said as she opened the grimoire she brought along. "Be a good girl, and I will play with you as long as I- er, _you_ can..."

"Lady Patchouli!" Her assistant appeared all of a sudden, panting hard like she just ran a marathon. "You won't believe what I found in the spell circle you used for the transportation ritual!"

Patchouli glared at her assistant. "Can't you see that I have a Little Mistress of Mass Destruction to deal with?"

The assistant didn't care what her master just told her. "It was probably the biggest blunder in the history of sorcery!" She exclaimed as she held out a parchment with a stenciled spell circle on it. "You know how the spell was supposed to send this entire mansion and everyone in it 300 leagues away? Well, you misspelled one of the runes, so it ended up being 300 leagues _and_ _years_ instead!"

Hearing that, Patchouli's normally narrow eyes widened in surprise. "So rather than just moving to another realm, we also moved into the future?"

"Yes..." The assistant answered.

In response to hearing that, Patchouli let out such a loud exclamation that even Flandre reeled back, intimidated by it.

"BLOODY HELL!"

...

**Hakurei Shrine**

"So we're no longer in the year 1815, but in the year 2115 instead?" Remilia asked for clarification.

"That appears to be what Lady Patchouli's assistant meant..." Sakuya confirmed.

Remilia let out a groan and then sighed. "Ugh... Why does everything dramatic I do always get ruined?!" She sulked like a typical annoyed brat would. "A-anyway, I have some urgent matters back at the mansion to attend to..." She told Reimu and Marisa. "We'll meet again some other time..."

With that, Remilia took to the skies, with Sakuya right by her side as the mistress and servant duo quickly headed back to their home.

As Remilia and Sakuya departed from the shrine, Reimu and Marisa blinked, trying to make sense of what they just experienced.

"So, no post ass-kickin' party this time 'round?" Marisa turned to Reimu.

"Perhaps not." Reimu responded. "What were they talking about, anyway?"

"Something 'bout a little sister and time travel, two entirely separate matters?" Marisa summarized. "Anyway, her ego has shrunken a lot compared to yesterday, but it is still pretty damn big."

"Yeah." Reimu agreed.

...

**Later that night.**

It was late in the night...

Marisa has already returned home after a short errand to the antique shop in the middle of the Forest of Magic, leaving Reimu by herself at the shrine to take care of things.

With the shrine grounds swept clean of leaves and petals (and the occasional trash left behind by the fairies), Reimu decided to call it a day. Setting the broom down by the donation box, the shrine maiden grabbed the Sacred Hakurei Gohei, and took a step into the main building...

"'Welcome to Gensokyo'" A voice suddenly spoke from behind Reimu. "That is some way to introduce someone to this sacred land while simultaneously knocking some senses into them, Hakurei Reimu."

Reimu paused. "Who is there?" She asked as she slowly turned around, with the Sacred Hakurei Gohei (still in its parasol form) in her grip.

Standing in the middle of the shrine grounds is the silhouette of a woman. Nothing about her appearance could be identified due to the darkness of the night.

"And then there's your witch friend, Marisa Genevieve Kirisame, distracting that intruder by, of all things, challenging her to a dance-off." The woman continued. "I have to say, I am impressed."

Reimu tightened her grip on the parasol. "Identify yourself!" She demanded.

The silhouetted woman lowered what appeared to be her umbrella, as she took several steps forward. She is now close enough that Reimu could make out her physical features.

The woman has long blonde hair adorned by a pale pink mob cap with a thin red ribbon. Her outfit is an oriental tabard with various trigrams over a pale pink western-styled dress whose sleeves have black bands tying off the ends.

**First Sage of Gensokyo**

**Yakumo Yukari**

"Yakumo Yukari, Architect of the Hakurei Barrier, and First Sage of Gensokyo." The woman introduced herself. "I'm here to talk to you about the thing that you and your friend invented very recently. I believe you two called it Spell Cards..."

* * *

Jeez, Patch, that is one _enormous_ blunder for you to make. You managed to accidentally send you, your friend, and her entire mansion and everyone in it 300 _years_ into the future...

And so ends the _EoSD_ arc. Next chapter, we'll be starting the _PCB_ arc, where Reimu and Marisa will have to deal with whoever it is that stole spring (as in the season) and replaced it with winter.

Guardians of the Sanctuary. I guess that name for Reimu and Marisa's Incident-solving team will be sticking around... And yes, that is a reference to the Guardians of the Galaxy. Marisa sure loves her pop culture references, eh?

Now that Yukari is formally introduced, how will it affect the career of this version of Reimu as the Hakurei Shrine maiden?

"And that, as they say, is that..."

_Afterwords end here._


	19. Winter is (Still) Here

_I'm here to talk to you about the thing that you and your friend invented very recently. I believe you two called it Spell Cards..."_

The words of the so-called Architect of the Hakurei Barrier and First Sage of Gensokyo, Yakumo Yukari, echoed in Reimu's mind. It remains loud there, even five months after Reimu has heard it.

Five months since she became a full-fledged shrine maiden of the Hakurei Shrine. Five months since the Scarlet Mist Incident. Five months since she and Marisa formed a team called the Guardians of the Sanctuary. Five months since the Guardians defeated Remilia Scarlet. Five months since the Guardians' founding members came up with the Spell Cards. Five months since that woman, Yukari, took interest of the Spell Cards.

Five months since Reimu told Yukari that she would think about it.

_"Think about it? Do take your time, Hakurei Reimu, as I am a very patient lady."_

...

**Hakurei Shrine**

"Snowball fight!"

Ako threw a snowball at her friends, who are huddled up behind a snow fort.

The other Little Witches then retaliated by using magic to form a dozen snowballs - some of which are larger than the Little Witches themselves - and hurled them at Ako, knocking her out and obliterating her own snow fort.

"Hey! Not fair!" Ako complained as she dug herself out of the pile of snow. "We were supposed to be using our _hands_! Not our wands!"

Meanwhile, Reimu stood next to the shrine's donation box as she watched the Little Witch Mob continue with their snowball fight-turned-squabble, having just had her thoughts interrupted by those little rascals.

"Witches..." Reimu massaged her forehead. "Leave it to them to always cause trouble..."

"Weren't you friends with a witch?"

That voice had reminded Reimu that she has other guests in the shrine. Guests that should've left moments ago.

"Weren't you girls supposed to have gone back to your shrines already?" Reimu turned and entered the shrine to address the guests inside.

Huddled around Reimu's kotatsu in the middle of the room are the same four lesser shrine maidens that visited Reimu during her ascension into a full-fledged shrine maiden five months ago, plus the one who for some reason did not show up during the ceremony.

"Our shrines aren't as big as yours, Miss Reimu." Said the shrine maiden with purple hair and a red flat cap.

"We don't live in our shrines either." Said the shrine maiden with blonde hair and a red ribbon.

"We also don't have proper heating or a kotatsu in our homes." Said the shrine maiden with dark hair and a white ribbon.

"I'm just here for the snacks and hot tea." Said the non-Yamato shrine maiden.

That lesser shrine maiden with silvery grey hair and a white hat - the one that didn't show up during Reimu's ascension ceremony - didn't say anything. She also refused to let go of her gohei, which is for some reason curved rather than straight.

Reimu narrowed her eyebrows. She can't really blame these girls, though. The weather in the past two weeks has been rather odd. She has experienced 14 Gensokyian Winters (not counting this one) in her 15 years of life, and none of them have been this cold, and snowed this much. To further this claim, Reimu woke up this morning to a knee-deep blanket of snow on the shrine grounds, when in previous winters the snow never even reached ankle depth.

There's also something else that is wrong about this year's Winter, but the shrine maiden couldn't figure out what it is, she just felt something amiss about it.

"Ruukoto?" Reimu called out to her green-haired maid.

The shrine maiden then slapped herself for forgetting that Yumemi and Chiyuri have borrowed Ruukoto three days ago to perform some "meteorological analysis", and has yet to return her.

The absence of the green-haired maid meant that Reimu would have to take care of everything in the shrine herself...

"It appears that you are in need of some helping hands."

Reimu's thoughts are interrupted by a voice coming from behind her. She hasn't seen the owner of that voice much since they first met five months ago, but Reimu knew of only one person who spoke like that.

"What are you even doing here, Sakuya?" Reimu asked as she turned around to face the silver-haired maid.

The lesser shrine maidens perked up upon hearing that name.

Sakuya, wearing the same maid uniform from five months ago along with an orange scarf, stood next to the shrine's donation box, patting snow off of her hair and shoulders. She also seems to be carrying a bag full of something.

"Delivering essential supplies to the villagers, as instructed by the mistress." Sakuya answered. "I thought you might be in need of supplies as well. That is why I came."

Essential supplies. The human villages certainly needed them. The Scarlet Mist that Remilia had created five months ago has led to a bad harvest due to the crops getting, according to a theory by Yumemi, poisoned by the Scarlet Mist and withering prematurely. Not helping is that the Scarlet Mist has also led to fairies running amok and attacking the villages, with Hoppou-Ri where most of the crops are produced getting hit especially badly. Due to the two aforementioned factors, the villagers weren't able to stock up enough food to last through the whole Winter, forcing everyone to start rationing what they still have left.

Come to think of it, that could be why the lesser shrine maidens have came to the Hakurei Shrine.

"As for why the mistress instructed me to do it," Sakuya added as she reached into the bag. "she claimed it was out of concern for the villagers, and to gain their trusts. But Lady Patchouli suspects that she is doing it just to inflate her own ego..."

"Your mistress, as in the vampire who caused the Scarlet Mist Incident five months ago?" The lesser shrine maiden with the purple hair and red flat cap cut in.

"The same one who got beaten by being challenged to a dancing match?" The non-Yamato lesser shrine maiden added, which elicited giggles from the others.

Reimu noticed Sakuya's lips twitching slightly at the mention of how Marisa helped beat Remilia by literally challenging her to a dance-off, and Reimu herself can't help but do the same. Looks like Remilia will never be able to live that down...

Just as Reimu is about to say something in response to Sakuya, something crashed into the snow-covered grounds of the Hakurei Shrine from high in the sky, kicking up a huge plume of snow. The Little Witch Mob became spooked, as they cut their snowball fight short and ran toward the shrine.

"Something just crashed into the snow!" Ako exclaimed while pointing at the plume of snow.

"It wasn't me this time, I swear!" Markle plead for innocence as she let go of her staff, letting it drop onto the veranda with a thud.

The lesser shrine maidens emerged from the kotatsu to see what is going on. Sakuya similarly turned to face the shrine grounds in order to see what had happened.

The plume of snow quickly dispersed, showing a crater at where the unknown object had crashed.

Reimu snatched up the Sacred Hakurei Gohei in its parasol form, and slowly approached the crater to investigate it.

Once reaching the edge of the crater, Reimu is able to see what is inside it.

It was a person, or more precisely, a fairy with wings that resembles sakura petals, wears a white dress and hat with red wave patterns outlining the edges, and has long blonde hair. The fairy is lying face-down in the snow.

"It...is...Spring..." The fairy lifted herself up from the snow to utter, before promptly collapsing face-first into the snow again.

Reimu became confused by the fairy's appearance and what she just said. She poked the fairy a bit with the Sacred Hakurei Gohei.

"Meh. It's just a fairy. They're usually doing stupid things, anyway..." Reimu told herself, before turning around to walk back toward the shrine...

...Only to stop mid-way as she suddenly realized precisely what she felt is amiss about this Winter.

This fairy is the same fairy that shows up at the beginning of every Spring to announce its arrival. She is only active during Spring, and doesn't show up at any other time of the year, and has been this way for the 15 years that Reimu had been alive. The fact that _this_ fairy showed up today when it is still Winter made Reimu realize what is wrong.

This year's Winter has gone on longer than it was supposed to be...

* * *

And so begins the _Perfect Cherry Blossom_ arc.

Well, I don't have much to say here this time, aside from how the world is going to hell due to the Covid-19 pandemic. My only advice for this problem: stay safe, and obey the quarantine measures.

"And that, as they say, is that..."

_Afterwords end here._


	20. In Deep Snowfall

**Marisa's House; Forest of Magic**

"What the heck?!"

Marisa huffed, annoyed by the sight of knee-deep layer of snow around her house, after having just made an effort just pushing the door open from the inside to get out.

"What's with all this snow?!" The witch muttered. "It ain't never snowed this much 'round here!"

As if fate wanted to taunt her, several snow fairies suddenly appeared from behind the trees and threw snowballs at Marisa.

Marisa isn't thrilled about that, especially with the snow fairies laughing at her.

The witch then drew her twin revolvers - which she "borrowed" from Kourindou a few months ago - and fired at the snow fairies, taking out two of them and causing the others to scatter.

"Ya think it's funny, huh?!" Marisa shouted at the retreating snow fairies.

With all the snow fairies having scattered, all that is available to respond to Marisa is the silence in the forest.

"Freakin' fairies..." Marisa muttered as she holstered her revolvers. "Always looking for trouble..."

"They can't help it, though." Said a different voice all of a sudden. "It is in their nature - pardon the pun - to cause mischief whenever they can."

Marisa scanned the forest for the origin of that voice, as she drew her revolvers again just in case. "Who, and where, the heck are you?"

"I'm over here." Said the voice.

Marisa did as told, and looked toward where she thinks the voice came from, with her revolvers pointed at that direction.

Emerging from behind a tree is a young lady of western descent with blonde hair and blue eyes, with a red headband in her hair. She wears a light blue dress over a collared white shirt, with a red ribbon around her collar and another on her sash belt. She is also wearing a red scarf and leather boots because of the cold weather.

"I'm not here to pick a fight with you, so you can put the bloody firearms away." The blonde lady assured.

Marisa kept her revolvers trained on the blonde lady. "Then why are you here?"

"Someone told me there's a magic store in the middle of the Forest of Magic."

"Who told you that?"

"A witch who calls herself Ellen 'Fluffy-head' Aureus."

"Does she have a white cat named Socrates?"

"Yes."

Hearing the answer she wanted, Marisa holstered her revolvers. "Well, ya came to just the right place. Marisa G Kirisame, owner of the Shooting Star Emporium, at your service."

The blonde lady glanced over Marisa's shoulder at the witch's house. "This old bloody shack is your shop?"

"It's also my house," Marisa clarified. "and the shop part's still under renovations, so..."

"That being said..." The blonde lady interrupted. "Do you have Belladonna Extracts in your inventory at the moment?"

"That stuff? Nope, sorry. It's out of stock, and I was just on my way to harvest some ingredients to make more." Marisa told her. "Assuming I can find any in all this godsdamn snow, that is."

"I see." The blonde lady said. "If it's fine, I will be back at another time..."

"No problem! I'll see ya again!"

"Farewell for now, then."

The blonde then lady turned around, and started to walk away from Marisa's house-slash-shop.

"By the way..." Marisa suddenly said to the blonde lady, causing her to stop in her tracks. "Ya seem _awfully_ familiar... Have we met before?"

The blonde lady stayed silent and motionless for a moment. Then she glanced over her shoulder, looking at Marisa through the corner of her eyes.

"In another world, perhaps..."

With that, the blonde lady continued on her way, and soon disappeared into the depths of the Forest of Magic, leaving behind only a trail of her footprints in the snow.

"_Another_ world?" Marisa put a hand to her chin. "She seems to know a lot more than she shows..."

Marisa's thoughts are promptly interrupted when a red and white blur suddenly appeared from the sky and landed with enough force to kick up a plume of snow that then falls down and buries her underneath. Or would have, had Marisa not quickly raised her wand and cast a shield spell.

"Marisa," Reimu, holding the Sacred Hakurei Gohei in its gohei form and powered-up by it, said as she approached the witch. "I need you at the Shrine now."

Marisa lowered her shield spell. "What's goin' on? Something happened?"

"An Incident happened, two weeks ago." Reimu informed. "And it is still happening right now."

...

**Hakugyokurou; the Netherworld**

In the Netherworld where souls of dead people go to, a dark, shadowy and huge tree with no signs of life towers over its ethereal landscape.

At the bottom of that tree sits the rustic oriental mansion, Hakugyokurou, that is inhabited by the ghost princess of the Netherworld and her loyal servant.

Currently, the pink-haired ghost princess and her silver-haired servant stood in the backyard of the mansion which overlooked the huge tree. Both watched as streams of pinkish blue energy converged at the canopy of the tree.

"Lady Yuyuko, are you sure you want to do this?" The servant asked her master.

The ghost princess, with a paper fan covering the lower half of her face, turned to look at her servant.

**Herald Princess of the Afterlife**

**Saigyouji Yuyuko**

"I just want to see whose body is it that was buried under the Ayakashi." The ghost princess, Yuyuko, reassured her servant. "No one is in danger, Youmu, so you don't have to worry."

**The Samurai Between Unlife and Undeath**

**Konpaku Youmu**

"But does that necessitate the literal theft of Spring?" The servant, Youmu, asked out of curiosity. "From the rest of Gensokyo?"

"I'm just borrowing Spring for two weeks, Youmu. Once the Ayakashi blooms, and its seal undone, I will be able to see the body buried under it. I'm sure Gensokyo won't mind it..."

"What if they do 'mind' it?"

Yuyuko lowered her paper fan, and let it fade away out of existence. "I'm very sure they won't. Now, Youmu, why don't you go prepare some snacks while we wait for the Ayakashi to bloom?"

Youmu sighed. "It is always snacks for you, Lady Yuyuko..."

...

**Hakurei Shrine**

"Ya know this fairy?"

Marisa reacted in disbelief when Reimu told her what happened.

"Not in person, but everyone in the villages have seen her enough to know what she is like." Reimu answered. "Don't you and your witch friends know who she is?"

"Sorry, but nope." Marisa answered. "Must've been too busy practicin' my magic. Not quite sure 'bout Ako and the others, though."

Speaking of the Little Witch Mob, they have gathered around the aforementioned fairy, who is still unconscious and has been dragged by Reimu into the shrine and laid on a futon in a corner of the room. Markle is poking the fairy with her staff, while Fey and Rey are each holding a potion vial, pondering if they should test them on the fairy. At the same time, the lesser shrine maidens remain huddled in the kotatsu, watching what the Little Witch Mob are doing with fascination and wariness. Sakuya, according to one of the lesser shrine maidens, has already left for Hoppou-Ri Village to help with the resupplying.

Reimu sighed at the Little Witch Mob's shenanigans.

"Marisa, meet the Fairy Herald of Spring: Lily White." Reimu then begins, with a finger pointing at the fairy. "She like to announce the coming of Spring by showering her surroundings with petals and announcing that Spring has arrived. Loudly." Reimu emphasized the last part by putting a finger into her right ear, as if to unclog it.

Marisa glanced at the fairy, Lily White, who remains unconscious.

"Well, she sure came at the wrong season this ye-"

All of a sudden, the sliding door - which Reimu had closed in order to keep as much of the cold air out and the warm air in as possible - is slammed open so hard it got dislocated from its rail.

"We need to see Hakurei Reimu! As soon as possible!" Proclaimed Kitashirakawa Chiyuri as she, wearing a white hooded Winter coat rather than her usual sailor outfit, stepped in, with Ruukoto right behind her.

Both Reimu and Marisa are surprised by Chiyuri's sudden appearance.

"What's wrong?" Marisa asked.

Chiyuri pointed above her. "The weather's what's wrong!" She exclaimed. "Remember when the Professor and I borrowed Ruukoto for meteorological analysis three days ago? We've only _just_ found out that something's really wrong with the weather."

"What is 'meteorological analysis', anyway?" Reimu interrupted Chiyuri.

"Doesn't sound like something related to meteors..." Marisa said.

"That's fancy word we scientists from my world use for 'checking the weather'." Entered Okazaki Yumemi, who is wearing a Winter coat similar to Chiyuri's but with a strawberry pink hue. "Has any one of you girls here ever 'talked about the weather' before?"

* * *

Yeah, I know. This chapter barely progresses the story (aside from showing us why Yuyuko did it), and basically is just a repeat of the previous one from Marisa's POV. I blame my mind from becoming stir-crazy after being stuck in my house for a whole month due to Covid-19 (don't worry, neither me nor my family has contracted it yet).

So stir-crazy that I actually came up with the concept for an original fiction just a few days ago. And I have plans to actually post that within the next week or so. You can find out more about that on my Tumblr blog.

"And that, as they say, is that..."

_Afterwords end here._


	21. A Literal Cold Case

**Hakurei Shrine**

"So someone's been messin' with the weather?" Marisa asked out of curiosity.

"More or less." Chiyuri answered as she placed a small device on the kotatsu. "I'll let the professor explain the details."

Yumemi pulled out from the pocket of her coat another small device that resembled a sheet of glass, and tapped on it. As she did so, the device on the desk activated, projecting a holographic scale model of all five human villages - Touhou-Ri, Seihou-Ri, Hoppou-Ri, Nanpou-Ri, and the Central City (why the City is classified as a village, only the village elders know) - in their proper locations, along with the sky directly above the villages.

"Here's what I found after three days of meteorological analysis." Yumemi began... only to immediately pause as everyone else in the living room of the shrine save for Chiyuri and Ruukoto gave her a confused stare. "Weather research. That's what I've been doing in the past three days." She explained in layman's term.

Reimu, Marisa, the Little Witch Mob, and the lesser shrine maidens all let out a collective "Oh."

"Anyway," Yumemi then resumed without missing a beat. "my analysis of Gensokyo's weather in the past three days has turned up something really unexpected. This is how Gensokyo's sky behaved during the first four weeks of Winter." She pointed at the hologram, which depicted the sky as it usually is: just the amount of clouds that a normal Winter should have. "And this..." The professor then tapped a few times on her controlling device, which caused a stream of pink to appear in the hologram. "...is how it is behaving right now."

"Notice the pink stream, which none of us here were able to see with our naked eyes." Chiyuri added. "It doesn't behave in a natural way..."

Marisa approached the hologram, and inspected the pink stream. "That looks like something's bein' siphoned out of Gensokyo..." She said.

"What is being siphoned? To where?" Reimu asked. She is already suspecting something about the pink stream.

Yumemi tapped on her controlling device again, causing the holographic representation of the human villages and the pink stream in the sky above to shrink, or rather, causing the hologram representation to zoom out, revealing the entirety of Gensokyo (including even tiny details such as Ellen's magic shop that is located close to the Hakurei Shrine) that there are more pink streams coming from every direction.

All the pink streams are converging into a single spot in the sky, where they are abruptly cut off by what is represented in the hologram as a black circle.

"That's where." Yumemi continued. "Call it a portal, a dimensional rift, a GATE, or even a Stargate..."

"Whatever's causing this is not from Gensokyo..." Chiyuri added.

Reimu and Marisa turned toward each other, then back at Yumemi's hologram, then at each other again, and then at the still unconscious Lily White.

"Someone's literally stealin' Spring from us." Marisa said to Reimu while keeping her gaze fixed on Lily. "Us, as in _all of Gensokyo_."

Reimu remained silent for a while, keeping her eyes on Lily at the meantime. Then she spoke, "No matter who or what is causing it, this is another Incident, and it is my duty as the Hakurei Shrine Maiden to end it..."

"Ya ain't doing this yourself!" Marisa told Reimu, as she then pulled out her twin revolvers. "We're gonna do this together, cause we're the freakin' Guardians of the Sanctuary!" She emphasized her point by twirling both revolvers.

In the process of twirling her twin revolvers, the witch accidentally pulled the trigger, unintentionally firing a shot into the ceiling.

Everyone froze and went silent in reaction to the accidental discharge, even Marisa. Though it's out of awkwardness for the witch, and out of being spooked for everyone else.

"Point that somewhere else!" Yumemi cried out.

"Learn your trigger discipline, young lady!" Chiyuri called out Marisa for her recklessness.

_"My final conclusion as to how much responsibility Miss Marisa has: zero." _Ruukoto noted with the most sarcasm she has ever expressed in a year, which is still very little.

The Little Witch Mob collectively face-palmed at their senior's recklessness-induced carelessness, while the lesser shrine maidens shook their heads.

Reimu let out an exasperated sigh. _Why did I even become friends with her in the first place?_ She mentally lamented.

Marisa slowly and awkwardly holstered her twin revolvers. "Whoops. Good thing mom ain't here, or else she'd never let me hear the end of this..."

...

A few minutes after Reimu has thoroughly chewed out Marisa for her reckless usage of guns, the two girls stood in the middle of the snowed-in shrine grounds, staring at the portal high in the sky (that remains invisible to both the naked eye and magical senses).

"What are these again?" Reimu asked Yumemi as she pointed at the tiny device she currently wears in her left ear, and the identical one in Marisa's.

"Looks like the headphones I use when I'm listenin' to my awesome mixes, but a whole lot smaller." Marisa said, gesturing at the music-playing device that she has secured next to one of her gun holsters.

"They're earphones. Communicating devices." Yumemi answered, adding the second part to clarify for Reimu.

"Like the crystal balls Marisa uses to talk to her friends?" Reimu asked.

"Sound only, but yes." Chiyuri provided the answer.

"Anyway, since nobody can see the portal with their own eyes, I gave you two these earphones-" Yumemi then holds out the small hologram projector in her hand, projecting a smaller hologram of the portal to show to Reimu and Marisa.

Unlike the earlier hologram, this one also displayed the position of Reimu and Marisa, who are represented as tiny yellow blips on it.

"-so I can track your position and guide you two to the portal." The redheaded professor then continued her explanation. "However, this device is not designed to detect any creatures, be they human or Youkai, so I can't tell if someone's headed your way."

"So you're gonna be our mission control for this one?" Marisa asked.

"To a limited capacity, yes." Yumemi answered.

Everyone then turned toward the invisible portal in the sky.

"This will be the second Incident that I'm going to solve as the Hakurei Shrine Maiden..." Reimu said, holding the Sacred Hakurei Gohei in its parasol form in her hands.

"And the second bout of the Guardians of the Sanctuary!" Marisa declared as she once again pulled out her twin revolvers to show off. Though she refrained from twirling them, having learned her lesson from back inside the living quarters of the shrine.

That still didn't save her from getting slapped in the back by Reimu for her scenery-chewing declaration.

"Why did I even agree to you naming our two-person team 'Guardians of the Sanctuary'...?"

* * *

F this quarantine...

Everything in the world and our lives have gone absolutely bananas, no thanks to COVID-19. In my case, being stuck in my house for two months has made me so stir-crazy that I have somehow contracted ADHD, leading to me easily getting distracted by everything else. The _looong_ delay of this chapter's arrival has nothing to do with Writer's Block or lack of motivation. It's just me becoming too stir-crazy because of the quarantine, on top of said quarantine making other aspects of my life utterly bonkers and confusing.

"And that, as they say, is that..."

_Afterwords end here._


	22. Interlude 1

**The Voile, Scarlet Mansion**

"So, Pache, how long do you think it would take Sakuya to finish her deliveries in the human villages?" Remilia, not using her usual melodramatic persona, asked Patchouli in a casual tone.

Patchouli, however, did not respond. She continued silently flipping through the various grimoires that she levitated with magic.

"Miss Patchouli is still sulking about getting the spell wrong..." Patchouli's assistant informed Remilia.

The vampire mistress raised her eyebrows. "Still? Hasn't it been five months already?"

The assistant looked to her left and right, as if to confirm there are no eavesdroppers, before she approached Remilia.

"Maybe that black-and-white witch was right about Miss Patchouli having a huge ego..." The assistant whispered to Remilia.

Patchouli _did_ apparently hear that as she suddenly turned to glare at her assistant and mistress.

Both Remilia and the assistant felt a cold shiver running down their spine.

"I-I will be going through the bookshelves to make sure all books are accounted for and in the right place..." The assistant said as she took off and flew into the inner section of the library.

"I-I will be in the basement, playing with Flandre..." Remilia said as she then stood up and excused herself from the Voile. Of course, the vampire mistress is lying as she has no plans to go anywhere near her insane, destructive little sister. But she didn't care as she just wanted to get away from Patchouli's cold glare as quickly as possible.

* * *

Since my Writer's Block has gotten worse since the previous chapter's posting, I figure I should try something a bit different for once by writing this really short Interlude chapter, which I'll also be using as an excuse to make a few announcements.

First of all, I have decided to retire the official _Young Maiden's Chronicles_ Tumblr. As it turns out, that wasn't the right way to use Tumblr at all, as all the other fanfic writers I met there post their fics in their _main blogs_ instead, and were able to get at least some attention that way. From now on, everything regarding YMC or anything stories I write will be posted in my main Tumblr blog.

Secondly, I will be putting _Young Maiden's Chronicles_, the _Atsuko Kagari series_, and the (currently still has only one chapter) _Modern Witchcraft_ (original fiction only available on AO3) on hold, as I'd be spending the next few weeks or months writing one-shots to fight my Writer's Block. So sorry about that...

I blame the quarantine for throwing everything out of whack...

"And that, as they say, is that..."

_Afterwords end here._


	23. A Murder is Announced

**Above Gensokyo**

"I was tired of my lady~

We'd been together too long~

Like a worn out recording~

Of a favorite song~

So while she lay there sleeping~

I read the paper in bed~

And in the personal columns~

There was this letter I read..."

Just a few seconds after taking off from the grounds of the Hakurei Shrine, Marisa suddenly activated her music-playing device and started singing along to the first song playing from it. Reimu, not understanding the lyrics (in the literal sense, as the translation spell doesn't seem to work on song lyrics), rolled her eyes as she flew next to the witch.

_"Heh, never expected to hear _The Pina Colada Song_ in this land of fantasy..."_ Yumemi said as she heard the song through the earphones she gave the Guardians.

"I've got just about everything in here!" Marisa stopped singing to respond to the professor. "AC/DC, Led Zeppelin, The Bee Gees, No Doubt, Electric Light Orchestra... ya name it!"

Yumemi is heard chuckling at that. _"Everything, huh?"_ She then said. _"How do you know about the names of those artists, anyway?"_

"My mom told me about them when she gave me her music player." Marisa casually answered.

_"Your mom?"_ Chiyuri asked.

"Yep." Marisa continued. "And she used to tell me these kickass stories too! My favorite being _Guardians of the Galaxy_, which is about-"

_"-A bunch of outlaws led by a guy named Peter Quill, who calls himself Star-Lord."_ Yumemi interrupted, and finished the sentence for the witch. _"I know. I watched the movies..."_

"I know its a movie, and that it has a sequel. It's also where I came up with the team name for the Guardians of the Sanctuary." Marisa said. "I've got the DVDs of them, and the 37 other movies they share a universe with." She added. "Wanna watch _Black Widow_ at my place after we're done with this Incident?"

_"Wish I could, but we've got some things to do."_ Chiyuri politely declined.

"This is an important conversation right now?" Reimu interrupted the conversation that she doesn't understand a word of.

Awkward silence came right after that statement by the shrine maiden.

"Maybe not..." Marisa then broke the silence. "It was just a chit-chat..."

Reimu rolled her eyebrows as she continued on her way toward the invisible portal in the sky.

"Say, is it me, or has it just got a whole lot colder?" Marisa suddenly asked.

"It's probably just the wind." Reimu said as she adjusted her scarf.

_"And probably just you gaining altitude."_ Yumemi added. _"It tends to get colder the higher you go in the sky."_

"I still have a bad feelin' bout this..." Marisa shrugged.

Shaking her feelings, the witch then produced a water bottle from her hyperspace-enchanted hat, and took a sip from it...

Or rather, she _tried_ to take a sip from it.

No water came out of the bottle.

"What the...?" Wondering what was going on, Marisa stuck a finger into the bottle, and found that the finger didn't even go halfway in before hitting something solid. She then removed her finger and looked into the bottle.

The water is completely frozen solid.

"Hey, uh," Marisa pressed her fingers against her earphone. "How high do you hafta get before the water in your bottle turns to ice?"

There was a bit of silence for a few seconds, presumably because Yumemi and/or Chiyuri are verifying the relevant information.

_"High enough that there's no air to speak of..."_ Yumemi then answered, with dread in her tone. _"And you're nowhere near that high..."_

"So you're sayin' that this shouldn't be possible?" Marisa asked for clarification, as she put her water bottle away.

_"Not unless magic or superpowers are involved..."_ Chiyuri stated.

"She is right..." Reimu suddenly said as she stopped ascending and held out the Sacred Hakurei Gohei in a defensive stance. "I can sense something or someone close by..."

_"Be really careful, you two." _ Yumemi warned. _"This one seems to be packing a l-"_

The transmission was interrupted by a loud screech that is followed by a brief buzz before going completely silent.

"Professor, ya still there?" Marisa tried to raise Yumemi. "Anyone?" She tried to raise Chiyuri and Ruukoto as well.

Still no response.

"I think we're all on our own right now..." Reimu stated.

Marisa groaned. "Darn it." She cursed as she un-holstered her twin revolvers.

The two could feel the air getting colder, despite there being no wind at the moment. They scanned their surroundings for any signs of anything or anyone odd.

"Whatever, or whoever you are, show yourself!" Marisa impatiently called out.

"My, my. You're one feisty little girl, are you~?" Came a reply from out of nowhere.

That voice sent chills down the spines of Reimu and Marisa.

Reimu tightened her grip on the Sacred Hakurei Gohei. "You must be a Youkai. So why don't you reveal yourself and face me, like a real Youkai would?" She dared the voice.

"You've got guts, girl~" The voice commented. "Very well, as you wish~"

All of a sudden, gusts of wind blew in from multiple directions, all carrying significant amount of snow with them. The snow gathered in one spot, and swirled around that spot like a miniature whirlwind that grew in size as more snow are added to it. The whirlwind of snow continued to grow until it exploded all of a sudden.

Where the whirlwind of snow was, there is now a woman with lavender eyes and snow white hair, clad in a blue and white dress with trousers underneath the skirt. She also wore a white cap, and a nearly transparent cape that billowed in the remnants of the gust that formed her body.

**The Snow Maiden That Prowled Winter**

**Letitia Whiterock**

"My name is Letitia Whiterock, and it is in my nature as a spirit of winter to tease people who gets lost during winter." The woman introduced herself with a smirk.

"A Yuki-Onna...?" Reimu took note.

"A what?" Marisa asked Reimu for clarification.

"A Yuki-Onna, a type of Youkai that only appears in winter, seducing lost people with their beauty before freezing them to death." Reimu explained for Marisa.

"No no no..." Letitia shushed. "I don't seduce people or freeze them to death. That is an incorrect stereotype."

"Well, I can't see how you're gonna seduce anyone, since ya looked kinda fat." Marisa snarked.

Letitia, however, didn't seem to take that statement too well, as the smile disappeared from her lips, replaced by a frown.

"D-did you just called me fat?"

Reimu turned to shoot Marisa a glare. "Really...?"

...

**Hakurei Shrine**

"Reimu, Marisa, you still read me?" Yumemi repeated for the fifth time after the signal had abruptly cut off.

"We're not getting any signal, professor." Chiyuri pointed out, as she gestured at the screen that currently displayed the text _"NO SIGNAL"_ in bright red on it. "For now, we can only cross our fingers..."

Yumemi set the communicator down, and sighed. "So much for being immune to interference." She then complained. The redheaded professor then turned toward Chiyuri. "Do we have any strawberries or strawberry-flavored snacks with us right now?"

Chiyuri sighed. "It's either researching magic or eating strawberries for you, professor..." She stated. "And no, we don't have any right now..."

Yumemi groaned.

* * *

I haven't abandoned this yet!

Well, that Writer's Block was a really tough one to deal with. But now that it's been dealt with, I can get back to updating _Young Maiden's Chronicles_ as usual. However, I'm still blank on what to write for _Mystical Knowledge_, so it's put on hiatus until further notice.

"And that, as they say, is that..."

_Afterwords end here._


	24. Interlude 2

**The balcony, Shinki's Castle; Pandemonium, Makai**

"Yumeko, why did everyone hate me all of a sudden?"

"It may be because you demolished nearly all of Pandemonium when you fought the Gensokyians last year."

Shinki stood on the balcony of her castle, drooping as she watched the magnificent skyline of Pandemonium.

A lot is going on in the self-proclaimed Demon Goddess'es mind, enough for a whole list of it to be made. On the top of that list is how the entire population of Makai has come to hate for for how far overboard she went when she fought Reimu, Marisa, Mima, Yuuka, and those little witches last year, resulting in the capital getting indirectly demolished by her attacks.

Her adopted daughter hasn't come to hate her for it, but even Alice thought that it was an incredibly irresponsible thing for a leader and a mother to do.

"Oh, Yumeko, what can I do to make everyone stop hating me?" Shinki asked, without turning her gaze away from the city skyline.

"A mere apology turned out to be not enough, Mistress." Yumeko responded. "Might I suggest doing something that everyone would be happy about?"

Shinki's mood seemed to brighten up, as she spun around on her heels to face her servant. "Great idea! How about I start another tourism agency? I heard that Winter is extended up there right now..."

Yumeko sighed and rolled her eyes. "I do not think anyone are in the mood for another tour to Gensokyo..." She said. "Makai's tourism industry collapsed completely after the Incident that the last tour caused..."

Shinki deflated upon hearing that. "Oh. I guess I have my work cut out for me, despite my powers..."

"That would appear to be the case, Mistress Shinki..."

* * *

Sorry for the unannounced hiatus. I got really busy IRL, and then on the _Little Witch Academia_ side of things, I took part in Dianakko Week 2020 which will be starting in 23rd of August, so I had to prepare for it as well.

In the meantime, here's another interlude to make up for the unannounced hiatus.

Until then, don't expect me to post another chapter for this story or _Atsuko Kagari and the School For Witches_ any time soon.

"And that, as they say, is that..."

_Afterwords end here._


End file.
